Short Title: An Act amending
Title 53 (Municipalities Generally) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes,
in neighborhood blight reclamation and revitalization, providing for failure to
comply with a code requirement.
Prime Sponsor: Senator WARD
Last Action: Referred to URBAN AFFAIRS AND HOUSING,
Jan. 26, 2015 [Senate]
MEMORANDUM
Posted: December
4, 2014 03:23 PM
From: Senator Kim
Ward
To: All Senate
members
Subject: Code
Violations for Dilapitated Properties
In the near future, I will be reintroducing Senate Bill
1242 of last session which aims to give municipalities the ability to address
dilapidated properties sooner than they now can.
Currently, municipalities must issue citations four times
for the same building code violation before a criminal offense of failure to
comply may be charged against a neglectful property owner.
This criminal offense was passed into law in 1999 as part
of a package of bills addressing urban blight.
It was intended to be used against property owners who are continually
cited for multiple building code violations and who do nothing to remedy those
violations. To date, this criminal
offense has only been charged in a handful of cases and even far fewer
convictions.
Blight continues to be a major problem in my district and
it seems that nothing can be done to hold the rightful owners of these
dilapidated buildings accountable. By
lowering the number of code violations that trigger when this criminal offense
can be charged, I hope to encourage property owners to stay on the right side
of the law yet give communities the ability to quickly address those who do not
before the properties deteriorate further.
The legislation I am introducing would do the following:
Allows the criminal
offense to be charged when the number of code violations is two or more of the
same subsection under the municipal housing code.
Clarifies that
the offense applies for all residential, commercial and industrial properties.
A second
conviction of a violation of the same subsection under the municipal building
code related to the same property would be a 2nd degree misdemeanor, and the
person convicted would have to serve a term of at least 10 days in jail,
undergo a mandatory minimum of six months’ probation and pay a fine of no less
than $1,000.
A third or more
conviction of building violation under this section would be a 1st degree
misdemeanor, and the person convicted would serve a term of at least 30 days in
jail, undergo a year’s probation and pay a fine of no less than $3,000.
Co-sponsors of SB 1242 were Argall, Yudichak, White,
Rafferty and Blake.
If you have any questions regarding this legislation,
please contact my office at 787-6063.
Thank you for your consideration.
No comments:
Post a Comment