Replies

Government has the option of fining property owners for code violations, there is no need to throw other people’s property rights out the window just because you want property to be used in some fashion of your choosing.

When large numbers of property owners leave property vacant, there is probably some government policy that causes them to do so. Fix the problem not the symptom.

I’d rather have fiscal libertarians as my neighbors than some lib Karens or some Karen posing as a conservative.

So here in California with Prop 13 we have many properties that sit basically abandoned because the property taxes don't go up that much each year, and the owner can at least for awhile use it as a loss to lower his taxes.

Even if the owner does the minimum amount of work to keep it from looking blighted, it still is a loss to the community. If it were resold, then it would be reappraised and the taxes generated from it would be greater, and there would be housing or business that others could live in or profit from.

There was a recent case in Britain where a family had moved into an abandoned house, renovated it, and lived in it for over 12 years before the owner realized what was happening. That owner lost the house to the family.