D.C. properties classified as vacant to quadruple

D.C. is sending a stern message to owners of vacant property: Put your real estate to use or get busy selling it to someone who will.

A crackdown on vacant properties, spurred by complaints that empty buildings are slowing the turnaround of District neighborhoods, could make it far more expensive to sit on empty property in D.C., even as the housing market sputters.

After labeling only about 800 properties in 2006 as vacant -- unoccupied for 30 days -- inspectors canvassed the city last year with more stringent enforcement guidelines and found more than four times as many vacant properties, about 3,400, which face the much higher tax rate for vacant properties.

That tax rate, already almost three times the rate for occupied commercial buildings and nearly six times the rate for occupied homes, will double from $5 to $10 per $100 of assessed value, under a plan near passage by the D.C. Council.

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About Safeguard
Safeguard Properties is the largest privately held field services company in the country. Located in Cleveland, Ohio 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 500 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.