Can an Arizona city make an owner clean up or tear down a dilapidated building?
Every Arizona city and town must have an ordinance making owners, tenants or occupants remove rubbish, weeds, debris or dilapidated buildings that are a hazard to public health and safety. If no one with an interest in the property fixes the hazard after notice, the city or town may remove or abate it itself.
State law defines a dilapidated building as a structure that is likely to burn or collapse and whose condition endangers the public.
- The owner must get written notice at least 30 days before the compliance date, including what the cleanup will cost if the city has to do it.
- The ordinance must let owners appeal both the notice and the bill, unless a court ordered the cleanup.
A recorded cleanup assessment comes ahead of every other lien and mortgage on the property except general property taxes. The city can sue in superior court to enforce the assessment, and a sale to pay it happens only on a judgment of foreclosure.
Arizona counties must have the same kind of cleanup ordinance for buildings and lots in unincorporated areas.
In Phoenix, a team of Neighborhood Preservation Inspectors handles blighted properties where buildings are found vacant and open to entry. Phoenix starts with a notice of violation that gives the owner 35 days to fix the problems, and if they aren't fixed, contractors clean or secure the property.
Phoenix bills the cost of that work to the property as a lien. Through its Abatement Lien Program, Phoenix goes to court to foreclose on unpaid liens on the most neglected properties.
What happens when property taxes on an Arizona house go unpaid?
In Arizona, the county treasurer collects unpaid property taxes by selling tax liens on the property and later foreclosing the right to redeem. A tax lien can be paid off in full any time within three years after the lien sale, and after that until a treasurer's deed is delivered to the lien buyer.
Besides the owner, a tax lien can be redeemed by the owner's agent, assignee or attorney, or by someone paying for the owner as a charitable gift. To redeem, a person pays the county treasurer what the lien sold for plus interest at the certificate's rate, along with later taxes the buyer paid.
If the lien is still unpaid, the lien buyer can bring a lawsuit to foreclose the owner's right to redeem, starting three years after the sale and no later than about ten years after.
The owner facing that lawsuit can ask the court to order a sale of the property so the owner can recover the excess money. The court treats that sale as reasonable if the property will likely sell for more than $2,500 above what is owed on the lien and costs.
Once the judgment is entered, the people whose right to redeem was foreclosed have no further right, title or interest in the property, subject to appeal.
Can an Arizona court appoint a receiver to protect a property?
Yes. An Arizona superior court may appoint a receiver to protect and preserve property, even when the lawsuit asks for nothing else.
When a loan is secured by a deed of trust, the trustee or lender can ask a court for a receiver, and that right stands on its own and can come before any other remedy.
How does a lender foreclose on a house in Arizona?
When the loan uses a deed of trust, through a trustee's sale: the trustee has the power to sell the property after a default without going to court. The trustee's sale can't happen before the 91st day after the notice of sale is recorded.
A copy of the notice of sale must be posted somewhere easy to see on the property at least 20 days before the sale.
The loan can be reinstated by paying the lender or trustee up until 5 p.m. on the last business day before the sale.
Holding an empty Arizona house and missing payments on it? It's worth reading Arizona's foreclosure steps, laid out plainly before a notice of sale shows up.
How do you report a vacant, open or blighted house in Arizona?
Phoenix takes blight reports online through myPHX311 or by phone at 602-534-4444.
Phoenix asks people to report a property that is vacant and has blight or related problems to its blight team.
Phoenix Neighborhood Preservation Inspectors enforce against common blight such as overgrown plants, graffiti, inoperable vehicles, and junk and debris.
You can also tell me where it is. I'll find out who owns it and reach out about buying it and fixing it up.