Bolingbrook Establishes Vacant, Foreclosed Property Registry

BOLINGBROOK, IL — The Village of Bolingbrook has partnered with a firm to help establish a foreclosed property registration system and database. Village officials said the database will help in policing property infractions such as unkempt lawns and unsafe structures.

Bolingbrook's Village Board in late August unanimously voted to partner with firm ProChamps to create the registry system that will keep a better handle on foreclosed and vacant homes in the village. The contract with ProChamps will run for two years, with a 30-day cancellation clause, village records show.

The new law will require the mortgage or deed holders of foreclosed homes to register the property with the village using ProChamp's system. Land owners will pay $110-$310 semiannually to register their properties in the database, with $200 of every registration fee going to the village.

The information included in the registry will not be made public, but it will be accessible to the village staff that is responsible with policing laws governing home ownership, such as property upkeep, said Ken Teppel, Bolingbrook's public safety director.

Over the last five years, the village has averaged $11,000 a year in expenses related to vacant property maintenance, Teppel said at the board meeting. Village officials work to track down the mortgage or deed owners, but it is not always successful, he said. Having the registry could help in those efforts.

“This is a great source of information for the village to actually find and track down those folks that handle those properties," Teppel said at the meeting.

The inhabitants of to-be-foreclosed homes do not pay the registration fee, officials said. Rather, the bank or financial institution that is repossessing the home does. Stan Urban, relationship manager with ProChamps, said such registries can help fight the scourge of blighted properties in communities.

“Every community in the US, not just in Illinois, has an issue with blighted properties," Urban said. "We hold the feet to the fire of the institutions holding the mortgages.”

Not everyone is enthusiastic about the registry. Gideon Blustein, local government affairs director with the Illinois Association of Realtors, said he hopes any registry does not add to the stress of families about to be foreclosed on. He asked that the village work with the Realtors group to make sure the registry does not burden area homeowners.

The requirement to register a foreclosed home in the database became effective Aug. 27, the day village officials gave final approval to the measure, according to a village website regarding the registry.