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Issuing code appearance tickets. Service to LLC's.

JimmyTreeX

JimmyTreeX

Registered User
Joined
Sep 4, 2021
Messages
38
Location
Upstate NY
Hello again,

I am writing to see how other Code Departments handle appearance tickets, specifically how they are served. My department has run into an issue (which has been getting progressively worse over the years) where around 60-70% of property owners and just about 100% of LLC's aren't appearing in court when ticketed. Personal service is difficult in my city because most of the problem properties are owned by out-of-town owners, so we are unable to hand-deliver the ticket. And when it comes to an LLC, we have no choice but to simply mail the ticket. I know you can serve the Secretary of State, but it can be extremely difficult and expensive. In January alone we had 15 LLC's on the docket.

I was wondering if any other departments run into these issues, and if so, what's the solution? Are there any recommendations anyone can give to help us solve this issue? The City I work for does not fix code violations and bill the owner for the work (even though it is in the local laws). We have a new Judge and she was not pleased with the amount of people who did not show up for court, and our process was what was criticized for it. We are a city of 75K, with only 5 code officers issuing tickets (we have a Building Department as well, but they stick to new construction), and the attorney assigned to us is part-time and could really care less about helping with anything other than the cases on the day of. In a nutshell: we are on our own.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 
It looks like you may have to go to the Secretary of State's office route, they can come down hard on an LLC in a hurry if I have to. I suppose you could get the judge to issue a bench warrants for people who don't show up as another alternative especially since she's upset about how many don't show up. Once the word got out that these things were being done they may start showing up better.
 
Msradell said:
It looks like you may have to go to the Secretary of State's office route, they can come down hard on an LLC in a hurry if I have to. I suppose you could get the judge to issue a bench warrants for people who don't show up as another alternative especially since she's upset about how many don't show up. Once the word got out that these things were being done they may start showing up better.
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Thank you!
 
If any portion of these citations are for rentals, An AHJ’s I work with has ordinance that requires appointment and full contact info of designated person within 20miles of said address who has the ability to make financial and tenant desicions.

I’m not certain that solves the issue or just puts another person on the hook for bad LLC’s.......
 
JimmyTreeX said:
The City I work for does not fix code violations and bill the owner for the work (even though it is in the local laws).
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In my mind, if you have this option on the table and are not pursuing it, there is no appetite from either side to actually remedy a violation. The community wants the revenue from the ticket and the LLC sees the ticket as just the cost of doing business.
 
Msradell said:
It looks like you may have to go to the Secretary of State's office route, they can come down hard on an LLC in a hurry if I have to. I suppose you could get the judge to issue a bench warrants for people who don't show up as another alternative especially since she's upset about how many don't show up. Once the word got out that these things were being done they may start showing up better.
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Agree completely. The city has become a paper tiger, the scofflaws know there’s no enforcement. There is a system available … use it.
 
steveray said:
Lien the property?
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That sounds good in principle but unless the city is actually spending money to correct the code violation I'm not sure how you could apply the lien. Doesn't sound like they have the ability to or at least use applying fees for noncompliance.
 
All owners are shown on the online county assessor's office. This includes mailing address. Other state websites can confirm the registered agent of an entity such as an LLC or corporation.

We send registered mail to the registered agent and post the property.

If they don't show up, they lose the case and we lien the property. The lien is good for 20 years so when they go to sell the property we get our money.

This is standard practice.
 
Property liens are useful sometimes and sometimes they are just a cost of doing business. Please educate me on how a lien ameliorates the problem? LA County places a $1250 lien and ceases any enforcement effort. So you have an illegal garage conversion that the County wants you to convert back to its original condition as a garage. You collect $800 per month for the next ten years and then comply with the order and pay the lien. Who’s the loser?
 
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ICE said:
Property liens are useful sometimes and sometimes they are just a cost of doing business. Please educate me on how a lien ameliorates the problem? LA County places a $1250 lien and ceases any enforcement effort. So you have an illegal garage conversion that the County wants you to convert back to its original condition as a garage. You collect $800 per month for the next ten years and then comply with the order and pay the lien. Who’s the loser?
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This thread is about serving LLCs and the process. If you want to discuss unsafe structures, that is another topic. There is another section of the administration section of the codes which varies city by city and state by state that handles situations such as the one you describe. There are processes that handle that which have nothing to do with the original topic of this thread. Start another thread if you want instead of drifting this one.
 
jar546 said:
This thread is about serving LLCs and the process. If you want to discuss unsafe structures, that is another topic. There is another section of the administration section of the codes which varies city by city and state by state that handles situations such as the one you describe. There are processes that handle that which have nothing to do with the original topic of this thread. Start another thread if you want instead of drifting this one.
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If you can get a picture, Google can tell you what kind of bug it is.
 
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Keystone said:
If any portion of these citations are for rentals, An AHJ’s I work with has ordinance that requires appointment and full contact info of designated person within 20miles of said address who has the ability to make financial and tenant desicions.

I’m not certain that solves the issue or just puts another person on the hook for bad LLC’s.......
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Yes we have the same program, and it absolutely helps, unfortunately we havent fully implemented it since 2009. But thank you, good advice.
 
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