Can Delaware towns keep owners of long-vacant property from bidding at sheriff's sales?
They can screen them. A town can require bidders at a sheriff's sale to certify that they don't own other property in town that has been vacant for 18 months or more without a valid building permit or pending land use application.
The other test covers property in town with more than $1,000 in certain past-due amounts.
Nonprofits that have built or rehabilitated affordable housing in Delaware for at least five years, and community development corporations, are exempt from that screening.
A town's finance director can also turn down the winning bid at a monition sale for any public purpose, including the bidder's failure to follow the law on its other properties.
Is foreclosure quicker for an abandoned house in Delaware?
It can skip a step. The notice of intent to foreclose, which must go out 45 days before a foreclosure is filed on an owner-occupied home, isn't required when the property has been abandoned.
Delaware's automatic foreclosure mediation program covers foreclosures of owner-occupied primary homes of one to four units.
If a foreclosure sale brings in more than the mortgage debt, interest and costs, the surplus goes to whoever owned the property at the time of the sale.
Holding an empty Delaware house with a mortgage you can no longer keep current? Here is a plain guide to Delaware foreclosure and the choices along the way.
How can a Delaware town tear down an unsafe vacant building and get its money back?
What a town spends tearing down an abandoned or vacant building found unsafe must be reimbursed with interest, and the town can put a lien on the land for it.
A certified letter to the owner and lienholders at least five days before the demolition counts as enough notice.
The same chapter covers a town's costs for repairs to the outside of vacant buildings, such as windows, doors, porches and roofing.
In New Castle County, if the person responsible ignores a notice or order and the violation continues, the county's Department of Land Use can have it removed, corrected or made safe. That includes paying to tear down, remove or repair unsafe or illegal buildings. Those costs become a tax lien on the property.
What happens when property taxes go unpaid on a Delaware house?
Delaware counties can collect unpaid property taxes through the monition method, on top of their other collection tools.
After a monition sale, the owner can redeem the property within 60 days from the day the court approves the sale by paying the buyer the purchase price plus 15 percent.
What does Delaware's land bank law do about vacant and abandoned houses?
It starts from the finding that vacant and abandoned properties cost local governments revenue and bring demolition costs, safety hazards, extra emergency calls and neighborhood decline.
A county or town can contract to sell some or all of its liens to a land bank.
A land bank can ask for an expedited quiet title case; the court then holds a hearing within 90 days and, on unanswered matters, rules within 120 days of filing.
Fire or other damage to a land bank's property must be fixed and secured right away, or the property demolished if it's a total loss.
How do you report a neglected property in Dover, Delaware?
In Dover, the city's Code Enforcement Office handles citizen complaints and can issue citations for violations it finds.
Property maintenance complaints in Dover can be submitted online through the Code Enforcement page.
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.