A court ruling in a case brought by the Towns of Irondequoit and Brighton says the county has to cover the cost of cleaning up abandoned properties if the owner can’t be found.
Both towns went to court after the county said last year it would no longer guarantee unpaid property maintenance and demolition charges. Towns will go in and do basic maintenance work or knock down abandoned properties that have become eyesores, then add the fees to the owner’s tax bill. The county would cover those fees if the property owner couldn’t be identified,.
The towns said that by no longer covering those fees the county was making it harder for them to deal with with “Zombie Properties,” buildings that fall into disrepair because nobody is caring for them.
The county said such fees weren’t really taxes and they didn’t want the responsibility of covering for them. The court ruled that state law requires them to do it.
Irondequoit Supervisor Dave Seeley says this protects taxpayers in all Monroe County towns and keeps the effort to demolish or maintain abandoned homes moving forward.