Clarksburg Looking to AG's Receivership Program to Help With Distressed Properties
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Health Agent Valerie Bird has raised the idea last month when a Daniels Road property was ordered vacated for multiple code violations. Bird and the Select Board didn't believe the owner had the capacity to address the myriad issues.
Bird recommended the Attorney General's receivership program, which takes blighted property and, through the court system, gets it into the hands of a developer who can rejuvenate it.
Maja Kazmierczak, assistant attorney general with the Neighborhood Renewal Division, offered a virtual presentation to the board on Monday, explaining the program and how it might be able to help Clarksburg.
"We've partnered with over 170 municipalities, and we definitely have over probably about 215 active properties that we're working on," she said. "We've had just about $715,000 in back taxes returned to municipalities through our program."
The program has been around for 30 years in various forms, with the goal to turn abandoned and blighted properties that have code violations into safe housing.
The state's receivership statute allows the court to appoint a receiver to a property if there are code violations and there is no one to repair them.
Kazmierczak said it had initially applied to occupied buildings but has since been changed to cover vacant structures as well. The AG's Office will do a site visit with a local inspector to see if fits the criteria, do a title search for owners or liens, send a demand letter informing the owner of the intent to seek a receiver, and then, if necessary, take it to court.
"It just kind of depends on the property and the owner, if we're going to give them additional time to make repairs," she said. "Sometimes it depends on if we can find a receiver."
The courts keep a list of approved receivers, or the AG's Office can pull from a pool of receivers who have expressed interest. The receiver reports regularly to the court and the property is sold by auction or public sale once rehabilitated.
It can be difficult to find a receiver in the Berkshires, she continued, because there are fewer and it depends on how many properties they might have at the moment, the amount of work required and the owed back taxes.
"The receiver has what we call a superpriority lien that comes before everything except for taxes and other types of municipal liens," Kazmierczak said. "Realistically, the receiver's rehab of the property and their lien would eat up most of the the property value, and then ideally there would be a surplus that would go back to the owner, but the surplus will go back to whoever is next in line."
She presented some examples including a small ranch on Dawn Drive in Becket that was recently completed by a nonprofit receiver. A first-time income eligible homebuyer was able to purchase the home. She said she will keep in touch with Bird on site visits for the Clarksburg properties.
Bird also brought forward the second distressed property — 573-579 River Road — as possible project for the program.
Trees and shrubbery have almost completely hidden abandoned house and Bird said she'd tried to contact the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is listed as the owner on the town's GIS database.
Town Treasurer and Tax Collector Kelly Haskins said it wasn't HUD and that she had been in contact with the owner. The assessor had been able to track the owner down after mailings to HUD were being returned.
"At one time, I believe he was looking to sell it, and I shared his number with an interested buyer," she said. "I'll go through my records and send that for you."
Bird said the property had apparently been condemned several years ago but there were no written records. She asked the board to be prepared to condemn the building when she has the documents for the next meeting.
As for 750 Daniels Road, she said the occupant, Steven Candiloro, has been on the property.
"I suspect that he's living there. He says he is not. Their generator is not running. There is no electricity. The place is still quite a mess, trash all over," Bird said, adding she'd spoken to the owner who was arranging for a dumpster. "It's going to take multiple dumpsters and there's the trailer as well. And she did say she doesn't have the money for that.
"We'd like to put that property in receivership, too."
In response to questions, Kazmierczak said it can take time to set up a receivership. It's taken almost a year to get a house in Peru matched with a receiver.
"I think the important thing is to get the taxes paid and get them back on the tax rolls and get a family in there," said Bird. "That what the goal is."
In other business, Town Administrator Ronald Boucher said work will be starting on the $1.3 million West Road culvert project and a meeting was set Tuesday to discuss the temporary bridge for Route 8 bridge replacement and the importance of keeping East Road accessible.
• He is getting prices to replace the front doors on Town Hall with more energy efficient ones. The amount of $4,180 in the Town Hall account was encumbered for that use.
• Bid opening for the North Eagle Street sewer improvement is Aug. 3, culvert work will begin on south Middle Road and the new pad for the school entrance will be poured next week.
Tags: attorney general, blight, condemned, receivership,
