Repairing unfit houses—and then recouping the costs

<p>[2011 UPDATE: For more detail on this topic, see the following 2011 book: Housing Codes for Repair and Maintenance: Using the General Police Power and Minimum Housing Statutes to Prevent Dwelling Deterioration]</p> <p>An earlier post on minimum housing ordinances (MHOs) explained how MHOs can be employed by a local government for the purpose of ordering owners to repair unfit dwellings. When an owner fails to comply with a repair order, the local government may proceed to effectuate the repairs itself. The costs to the local government for making the repairs become a lien on the property. What mechanisms are available to local governments to collect on these liens?</p> <p>Liens for minimum housing costs, pursuant to G.S. 160A-443(6), “shall be filed, have the same priority, and be collected as the lien for special assessment.” In other words, these are not lowly mechanics liens (the type of lien applied for enforcement of most police power actions under G.S. 160A-175 for cities and G.S. 153A-123 for counties). Rather, special assessment liens are senior to all liens except other tax liens (see G.S. 160A-233) and therefore survive bank foreclosure actions.</p> <p>Additionally, special assessments are “collected in the same manner as property taxes” pursuant to G.S. 160A-228. This makes available some rather robust enforcement mechanisms. For example, authorized collection methods include levying upon personal property, attaching rents, and garnishment (G.S. 105-366), making claims through the Setoff Debt Collection Act (G.S. Ch. 105A), and foreclosure upon real property (G.S. 160A-233, 105-374, 105-375).</p> <p>These are fairly robust collection methods, but will they work? Local government repair authority [...]</p>