Town may force fix-ups on blighted properties
New law will help O.B. address problems with abandoned houses
BY JESSICA SMITH Staff Writer

OLD BRIDGE - Township officials aim to crack down on abandoned properties around town.

A new ordinance will give the township more power over situations in which homeowners are keeping up with their taxes, but not keeping up with their properties.

"It's certainly not prevalent at all, but in the course of my travels this year, there were a couple of properties in Laurence Harbor that fall into this category," Township Council President Pat Gillespie said. "We should have every tool at our disposal to try to address it."

Gillespie, along with Councilman Bob Volkert, worked on the ordinance after seeing a need to address the issue. Though there are only about three of these types of properties that Gillespie knows of now, he said nearby homeowners are unhappy with having unattractive,, and sometimes dangerous, structures in their neighborhoods.

"It doesn't do much for your property values," Mayor Jim Phillips said.

With the ordinance adopted at Monday's meeting, officials will create a list of abandoned properties in town, then monitor each one to determine what action needs to be taken, Gillespie said. From there, the town could go to court to order the homeowner to bring the structure up to code. Another alternative would be for the town to make necessary repairs, then make the property owner pay.

In extreme cases, a lien could be put on a house, a demolition order could be issued, or the town could seize the property through eminent domain, according to Gillespie.

One such case is a house on Garfield Street in the Laurence Harbor section. According to Gillespie, the house is being slowly dismantled so that the owner can use components of it on some other structure. Siding has been taken off the house, windows have been removed, and there is standing water in the basement, creating an eyesore and a potential hazard, he said.

"The house was clearly a nuisance and was unsafe," Gillespie said. "They actually served them with a demolition notice."

Despite the fact that the new ordinance had not yet been passed, the town had the authority to call for demolition because of the severity of problems at the house, Gillespie said.

A state law passed in 2005 allows for towns to have control over abandoned properties, but Gillespie said a loophole prevented action to be taken unless the owners were not keeping up with their taxes.

"There had been sort of a gray area in the law," Gillespie said. "The state law is in place, but the town has to adopt a local ordinance to implement the law."

Homes can be abandoned for a variety of reasons, according to Gillespie and Phillips. Sometimes property owners have approvals to build homes or rehabilitate an existing structure, but do not move forward in a timely manner because of financial reasons. In other situations, homes are left unoccupied because of an illness or death.

"Nobody cuts the grass, and the papers accumulate on the front doorstep," Phillips said.

Gillespie attributed some of the issue to problems in the real estate market and the subprime mortgage trend that allowed for sometimes-risky lending scenarios at high interest rates.