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Help with Dilapidated Structures Sought in West Virginia

CHARLESTON — Local government officials go through a tedious process to improve or remove dilapidated, unsafe structures in the community — sometimes waiting up to two years before they’re allowed to act.

To quicken the process, the West Virginia Municipal League plans to propose eliminating a step that requires a municipality to go to circuit court.

After advertising and posting notice, and after a period of time goes by, “if the owner doesn’t show up, you can take the house down,” Paul Ellis, Charleston city attorney, told a group of local government administrators Sunday during the league’s Mid Winter Convention in Charleston. “You never have to go to court.”

Dilapidated properties — whether caused by failure to maintain a property, an absentee landlord or the owner’s or resident’s death — are a problem because they attract vagrants, officials said.

Executive Director Lisa Dooley said the league supports changes to ease the process.

Other proposed changes include redefining what is a dilapidated, unsafe structure that requires action by a municipality, and establishing guidelines for notice and due process.

Weirton Mayor Harold Miller, who was among the hundreds of attendees at the conference, said Weirton and its residents would benefit from the changes.

“Anything we can do to shorten the time frame, improving the community while ensuring residents are living in proper conditions, would be wonderful,” Miller said.

Miller said he’s seeing more residents living without utilities and settling for dangerous alternatives such as using wood burners for heat.

The sooner the city can get into the building, the sooner, “we can get them out of there and into a safe condition,” he said, adding homes that have problems with heating, water, sewage or window repairs signal the need for intervention.

He said it’s not just about tearing down properties, but making repairs where necessary, and the city has volunteers and nonprofit organizations that are ready to help.

Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott said, “vacant properties are, without a doubt, an issue in Wheeling, although certain wards of Wheeling — Wards 2 and 3, as well as Warwood — may have more instances.

“We have a vacant building registry that I support wholeheartedly,” he said, referring to a 2009 ordinance the city adopted under home rule.

However, the escalating fee-structure causes fees to mount so much that owners might take a useable structure and demolish it, rather than paying those high fees.

“That just leaves vacant lots,” he said.

Wheeling and other communities could use the state’s help in shortening the required 18-month delay — a delay that causes a property to sit unused, Elliott said. It’s a delay required to protect property rights, including doing a title search and review for back taxes.

During that time, no one is cutting the grass at the property, the structure isn’t heated, it’s probably taking-in water, and is generally becoming a nuisance in the neighborhood, Wheeling Councilman Dave Palmer said.

“That period is often when houses go from bad to unsalvageable,” Elliott said. “If the state wanted to help, they would look at (shrinking) that 18-month period.”

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