Authored by Payton A. Heins, Associate Director of Michigan Initiatives and Matt Kreis, General Counsel, this new resource “breaks down nine leading code enforcement tools that help fight vacancy through traditional enforcement, proactive regulation, and additional strategies. The guide offers residents, enforcement professionals and leaders a robust resource for understanding the tools and impacts of code enforcement on the lives of residents, local budgets, and infrastructure.”

***One of the many tools listed is a vacant property registry and a rental property registry.

The “Disadvantages” section states:

“A VPRO as a data collection and management tool is only as useful as the information put into it. Compliance rates for most VPROs are often not very high — in fact, some communities would consider a compliance rate of 50 percent high. Out-of-state or deceased owners are unlikely to register, for example, and it may be that these unregistered buildings are the ones imposing the most harm on the community. In addition, enforcing the VPRO, which includes sending out registration notices and monitoring and tracking the status of both registered and unregistered properties, may take a significant amount of resources and thus may not be the most efficient use of limited local capacity”.

This is exactly why MuniReg exists. To allow a municipality to have this tool in its toolbox maximizing compliance and internal efficiencies, and eliminating the “Disadvantages”.

For access to the Report, please click here.