Anti-foreclosure bill OK'd 

A bill to help identify the owners of foreclosed properties is moving to the Ohio Senate, after the House passed it 90-2 before adjourning Wednesday.

The bill – authored by Reps. Louis Blessing, R-Colerain Township and Mike Foley, D-Cleveland – would require sheriff’s departments, not the purchaser of a foreclosed property, to file a deed with the recorder’s office within 14 days of confirmation and to collect identifying information from those entities obtaining the property at sheriff’s sale.

The idea is to help governments make contact with the new owners on upkeep and other problems. 

Only Reps. Tom Brinkman, R-Mount Lookout, and Bill Coley, R-Middletown, opposed the measure.

Municipalities across the state – which end up paying for mowing, winterizing and securing the vacant properties against drug dealers, vandals and squatters – have complained about the problem. “It would be easier to find Osama bin Laden than the owners of these abandoned properties,” Elmwood Place Mayor Richard Ellison complained recently.

Cincinnati, for example, can issue orders and even barricade properties deemed to be health and safety hazards. It can send a summons to appear in Housing Court, where owners can face criminal penalties. But the city has had to dismiss several criminal cases for building-code violations because the absentee property owners couldn’t be found.

In addition, since the city can’t arrest a corporation, there’s little incentive for out-of-state property owners to appear 

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About Safeguard
Safeguard Properties is the largest privately held field services company in the country. Located in Cleveland, OH  and founded in 1990 by Robert Klein, Safeguard has grown from a regional preservation company with a few employees and a handful of contractors performing services in the Midwest, to a national company with over 450 employees.  Safeguard is supported by a nationwide network of subcontractors able to perform any requested superintendence, preservation, and maintenance functions, as well as numerous ancillary services in the U.S., the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.