715.261 Recovering total cost of correcting hazardous condition of building or abating nuisance.
715.261 Recovering total cost of correcting hazardous condition of building or abating nuisance.
(A) As used in this section, “total cost” means any costs incurred due to the use of employees, materials, or equipment of the municipal corporation or its agent pursuant to division (E) of this section, any costs arising out of contracts for labor, materials, or equipment, and costs of service of notice or publication required under this section.
(B) A municipal corporation or its agent pursuant to division (E) of this section may collect the total cost of removing, repairing, or securing insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, abandoned, deserted, or open and vacant buildings or other structures, of making emergency corrections of hazardous conditions, or of abating any nuisance by any of the following methods:
(1) The clerk of the legislative authority of the municipal corporation or its agent pursuant to division (E) of this section may certify the total costs, together with a proper description of the lands, to the county auditor who shall place the costs upon the tax list and duplicate. The costs are a lien upon such lands from and after the date the costs were incurred. The costs shall be collected as other taxes and returned to the municipal corporation or its agent pursuant to division (E) of this section, as directed by the clerk of the legislative authority in the certification of the total costs or in an affidavit from the agent delivered to the county auditor or county treasurer. The placement of the costs on the tax list and duplicate relates back to, and is effective in priority, as of the date the costs were incurred, provided that the municipal corporation or its agent pursuant to division (E) of this section certifies the total costs within one year from the date the costs were incurred.
(2) The municipal corporation or its agent pursuant to division (E) of this section may commence a civil action to recover the total costs from the owner.
(C) This section applies to any action taken by a municipal corporation, or its agent pursuant to division (E) of this section, pursuant to section 715.26 of the Revised Code or pursuant to Section 3 of Article XVIII, Ohio Constitution.
(D) A municipal corporation or its agent pursuant to division (E) of this section shall not certify to the county auditor for placement upon the tax list and duplicate the cost of any action that it takes under division (B) of this section if the action is taken on land that has been forfeited to this state for delinquent taxes, unless the owner of record redeems the land.
(E) A municipal corporation may enter into an agreement with a county land reutilization corporation organized under Chapter 1724. of the Revised Code wherein the county land reutilization corporation agrees to act as the agent of the municipal corporation in connection with removing, repairing, or securing insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, abandoned, deserted, or open and vacant buildings or other structures, making emergency corrections of hazardous conditions, or abating any nuisance, including high weeds, overgrown brush, and trash and debris from vacant lots. The total costs of such actions may be collected by the corporation pursuant to division (B) of this section, and shall be paid to the corporation if it paid or incurred such costs and has not been reimbursed.
(F) In the case of the lien of a county land reutilization corporation that is the agent of a municipal corporation, a notation shall be placed on the tax list and duplicate showing the amount of the lien ascribed specifically to the agent’s total costs. The agent has standing to pursue a separate cause of action for money damages to satisfy the lien or pursue a foreclosure action in a court of competent jurisdiction or with the board of revision to enforce the lien without regard to occupancy. For purposes of a foreclosure proceeding by the county treasurer for delinquent taxes, this division does not affect the lien priority as between a county land reutilization corporation and the county treasurer, but the corporation’s lien is superior to the lien of any other lienholder of the property. As to a direct action by a county land reutilization corporation, the lien for the taxes, assessment, charges, costs, penalties, and interest on the tax list and duplicate is in all cases superior to the lien of a county land reutilization corporation, whose lien for total costs shall be next in priority as against all other interests, except as provided in division (G) of this section.
(G) A county land reutilization corporation acting as an agent of a municipal corporation under an agreement under this section may, with the county treasurer’s consent, petition the court or board of revision with jurisdiction over an action undertaken under division (F) of this section pleading that the lien of the corporation, as agent, for the total costs shall be superior to the lien for the taxes, assessments, charges, costs, penalties, and interest. If the court or board of revision determines that the lien is for total costs paid or incurred by the corporation as such an agent, and that subordinating the lien for such taxes and other impositions to the lien of the corporation promotes the expeditious abatement of public nuisances, the court or board may order the lien for the taxes and other impositions to be subordinate to the corporation’s lien. The court or board may not subordinate the lien for taxes and other such impositions to any other liens.
Effective Date: 09-10-1996; 2008 SB353 04-07-2009