Revere issues $87G in vacant property fines

REVERE – One hundred abandoned or vacant building owners will be fined a total of $87,000 this week for failing to maintain their properties.Grateful City Council members hope the fines will keep buildings in the neighborhoods they represent from attracting rats, garbage and vandals. Ward 3 Councilor Arthur Guinasso said Fairfield Street neighbors call him frequently to complain about three empty buildings on their street.”Something has to be done. It’s been like that for the last several years. It’s not fair to homeowners around the property who look at boarded up windows. People need some relief,” Guinasso said.City inspectors periodically check on vacant buildings and bill their owners for administrative costs ranging from $500 to $3,000. City Inspectional Services Director Nicholas Catinazzo said the fines are meant to motivate owners to fix up their property or replace it.”One house on the street that is boarded up makes the neighborhood look like a ghetto,” Catinazzo said.The city collected $240,000 in fines and property liens last year and saw half of 2008’s vacant properties purchased. The city fund reserved for making short-term repairs to abandoned properties is currently empty and needs a transfusion of city cash, Catinazzo said.He expects banks and other institutions that own vacant local buildings will pay fines owed to the city over the next two to three weeks and initially add $15,000 to $20,000 to the fix-up fund.Guinasso and Councilor John Powers blamed the abandoned properties on the national mortgage foreclosure crisis. Rather than pay escalating mortgages they could no longer afford, owners moved out of homes, leaving maintenance and safekeeping of the property to banks, municipal officials and neighbors.