Peabody ups fines for vacant properties

PEABODY-Financial institutions will soon have larger fines to pay for vacant, foreclosed properties left unkempt.With the encouragement of the Peabody?s building inspector, Kevin Goggin, the City Council voted Tuesday night to increase the initial penalty from $25 to $100 for each day the owner fails to meet the city?s regulations, and from $50 to $300 for those who fail to be in compliance within seven days.Goggin told the Council that charging wealthy banks a small fee of $25 doesn?t exactly light a big enough fire underneath them to take corrective action and clean up the site. He recommended increasing the fee in an effort to keep vacant properties from turning into safety hazards.Under the city?s regulations, “vacant” buildings are those which have been unoccupied or unused by the owner or tenant for at least 6 months, if not longer.Such vacant properties are to be maintained in a “safe, secure and clean condition so as not to compromise the health, safety, and general welfare of the community,” the ordinance states.More specifically, owners must maintain the property?s exterior walls so as to protect them from weather damage, remove all graffiti, dispose of any and all garbage, keep up the vegetation and remove all junked vehicles.City Councilor Anne Manning favored the fine increases, but questioned how the city would ever know that such large institutions, many of which have headquarters outside of the state, ever received the fines.?No one can ever get in touch with these banks,” she said.Goggin agreed, noting that the process has been difficult. He said that he has been working with other communities, such as Boston and Lowell, to develop more effective ways of going after the mortgage companies.