Woods, Park Address Vacant Homes

Decades ago, even five years ago, it never would have been a problem in the Pointes but now it's a reality: abandoned properties. 

They affect everyone from homeowners to cities to realtors. Abandoned properties that fall into disrepair while no one is living there and, quite often owned by a faraway bank, have an impact on home values, a city's tax base and the aesthetics of a neighborhood.

While home values continue to drop in the Pointes, city officials through the five municipalities are focused on maintaining the services and features that set them apart from other communities. 

In the , one such move included the passage of an ordinance Building Inspector Gene Tutag has recently begun delving into: requiring owners of abandoned properties to register a local representative. 

The idea behind the ordinance is to prevent abandoned homes from falling into disrepair and it requires the local representative to live within 40 miles of the Woods. This means a broken window, for example, could be fixed tomorrow rather than in six months when a bank in Iowa gets around to it, Tutag said. 

The also adopted a similar ordinance requiring vacant homes to be registered with the city every six months at a cost of $250. If the home is in violation of one of the Park's codes at renewal time, the fee is upped to $500; at two violations the expense is $750; at three or more the fee is $1,000. 

The costly renewal fees are intended to motivate the owners to keep the home in good shape and up to current code, said councilwoman Laurie Arora. 

While the city's have traditionally used residential code enforcement to try to keep up with properties that are falling into disrepair, occupied or not, those fines and citations don't mean much to the faraway owner who is not vested in the community, Tutag said.

Meanwhile, neighbors suffer the eyesore that has developed, he said. Currently Tutag and his staff of three full time people are working to generate a list of homes they suspect are vacant and then the hunt will begin to track down the owners, he said. There are about 60 homes in the Woods that are believed to be vacant, Tutag said, which is better than it was last year at 90. 

The Woods ordinance requires the homes to be registered annually. What spurred the creation of the ordinance was one house in particular for which repairs took nearly a year, Tutag said. 

In addition to keeping the homes up to neighborhood standards, Tutag said the ordinance should make it less obvious which homes are vacant. "It makes the house a target," he said, of those falling into disrepair. "It sends a message to the thieves when it looks bad."

Meanwhile, in a first of its kind meeting, the Grosse Pointe Board of Realtors met with representatives from all five of the Pointes in December in an effort to tackle the problem together.

The Board now provides each city with listings as they come on the market that are bank owned or otherwise should be flagged as properties at risk for falling into disrepair, Board of Realtors President Randy Repicky said.

"We want to let the cities know to monitor these homes, to help stop them from being in danger," Repicky said. "They are everywhere."

Repicky said the homes that cause concern are not necessarily vacant homes because there are plenty of those that are well-maintained and regularly cared for but it's the abandoned homes that no one is looking after. 

As the market sees more homes falling into disrepair, Repicky said the cities will  likely continue getting more and more strict. There is no easy way to track vacant homes but he said each of the Pointes has their share. 

He believes the cities adoptions of ordinances to require registration are a positive sign. "This problem didn't even exist five years ago," he said. "It's in all of our interests to maintain the housing stock. Sometimes cities can over manage but I don't get that impression here."

The housing market in the Pointes has changed drastically as compared to the early 1990s when home prices were sky-rocketing, Repicky said. Homeowners were pouring money into their homes generously and the quality of homes was continually climbing. Now, however, the investment in homes isn't there, whether homeowners can't afford it or are afraid to invest in a house they already owe more on than the amount for which is valued, the overall quality has declined, he said. 

Similar ordinances have not been adopted in the Shores, Farms or the City, where each city manager said there isn't a need. They have a good handle on what homes are abandoned and uncared for and are addressing it appropriately, they said. 

Each of those Pointes has a smaller housing market as compared with the Woods and the Park, where there is a greater variety in the types of housing offered. 

As the Woods and Park delve into enforcement of the registration, Repicky believes they may find, as with any new ordinance or requirement, it may have to be altered. "I think (the cities) taking action is a good thing," he said. 

The goal should be everyone working together to avoid having homes reach the danger point--being in such disrepair that it has to be demolished rather than remodeled, Repicky said. 

So far the Woods has had several registrations and Tutag and his team are well into cataloging the homes with basic information, including the last owner and photographs. Tutag expects the cataloging to take about one more month to complete, he said. 

In addition to information provided by realtors, Tutag finds homes that should be on the list through neighbors and even water bills, in which water usage is checked, he said.

"It does not have a positive impact on the neighborhood," Tutag said. "We want to make someone responsible for it to keep it at neighborhood standards."