RECENT COMMENTS
Properties facing sale for delinquent taxes
The classifieds section of the July 15-17 issue of the Richmond Free Press includes notice than a number of properties in the city are facing seizure due to nonpayment of taxes, including almost 50 in the area.
Owner/s of the below listed properties are hereby given Notice that thirty (30) days from the date of this notice, proceedings will be commenced under the authority of Section 58.1-3965 et seq. of the Code of Virginia to sell the following parcels located in the City of Richmond, Virginia for payment of delinquent taxes:
912 North 21st Street
1306 North 21st Street
1319 North 22nd Street
1513 North 22nd Street
1100 North 23rd Street
1802 North 23rd Street
1813 North 23rd Street
1510 North 24th Street
902 North 25th Street
1105 North 25th Street
1124 North 26th Street
1207 North 26th Street
1209 North 26th Street
1211 North 26th Street
1215 North 26th Street
1221 North 26th Street
1403 North 26th Street
1318 North 28th Street
1905 North 28th Street
1009 North 31st Street
1121 North 31st Street
1414 North 31st Street
1311 North 32nd Street
921 North 33rd Street
1202 North 33rd Street
1220 North 33rd Street
1120 North 35th Street
1300 North 38th Street
2310 Burton Street
2305 1/2 Carrington Street
2307 carrington Street
2310 Fairmount Avenue
3407 East Marshall Street
1414 Melton Avenue
3070 Nine Mile Road
2513 O Street
1428 Oakwood Avenue
1623 Oakwood Avenue
3012 P Street
3108 P Street
3202 P Street
3304 P Street
2502 Q Street
3111 Q Street
3208 Q Street
3013 R Street
2110 Redd Street
2919 S Street
2011 Venable Street
2505 Whitcomb StreetThe owner/s of any property listed may redeem it at any time before the date of the sale by paying all accumulated taxes, penalties, interest and cost thereon, including the pro rata cost of publication hereunder. Bonnie M. Ashley, Esquire Karl R. Holsten, Esquire Assistant City Attorney City of Richmond 900 East Broad Street, Room 300 Richmond, Virginia (804) 646-7940
TAGGED: real estate
It’s unfortunate for someone to lose their property; but, after looking at a lot of these houses and lots on Google Street View, I’m guessing many of them no longer have clear titles, etc. This could be a good opportunity for BHC, Lifetime Homes/Elderhomes, Habitat for Humanity and other affordable housing groups to continue their revitalization efforts in the neighborhood. A sizable chunk of these properties appear to be in the Neighborhoods in Bloom area.
Hopefully they won’t be purchased by slumlords for pennies on the dollar, and left to rot. This is common here in Baltimore, and I’d hate to see it happen in Richmond as well.
Many of these are also under CAPS enforcement at this point.
#1-Those NFP organizations you named are usually gifted these lots by RRHA after RRHA uses federal (ie our federal income tax dollars) community block development grants to BUY those properties, usually at auction. Then more CDBG (our federal income tax dollars) funds are used to rehab these properties. When a buyer is found for the rehab, the buyer usually qualifies for federal grants (our federal income tax dollars)for downpayment assistance/closing costs. Then, if the property is in a NiB, the buyer gets more tax breaks. As a taxpayer, I am tired of involuntarily paying for this stuff. But, hey, it sure sounds good in a sound bite, so why not?
#2-A vast majority of properties in residential neighborhoods are required to be developed within two years as a condition of the sale.
Does anyone know when they go on sale?
#5, Jason- You can call the city attorney’s office, and they can give you an approximate auction date. You can also go to http://www.motleys.com/ and watch for the auction, or subscribe for email alerts.
KayKay–are you referring to city development agreements placed on tax sale properties? It is not the case that a vast majority of improved parcels (to which #2 was referring) are auctioned with development agreements put in place by the city, but you may be referring to something else that I am not aware of.
That has been my experience, although I have only attended four auctions involving tax delinquent properties. Perhaps that makes me a novice. Sometimes unimproved parcels have a development agreement as well. I have seen that far less often.
kaykay, I think it has less to do with being a novice and more to do with the fact that, unless you happen to work in the City Attorney’s Office, the tax auction process can seem a bit nebulous.
Because of the $50,0000 assessed-value-cap (VA Code Sec 58.1-3970.1) on when the city can easily take title and, hence, place a development agreement on a property when it is auctioned, a substantial number of tax sale properties are sold without a development agreement simply because the city doesn’t take title to the property. The reality is that there are not that many improved parcels in the tax sale process that are assessed at less than $50,000.
For example, of the 69 improved parcels that are currently being processed for tax sale, it looks like only 22 of those are assessed at equal-to-or-under $50,000.
So, sadly, it is hardly a “vast majority” of tax sale properties, specifically improved parcels, that are sold with development agreements, meaning that the concerns expressed by #2 are indeed valid.