Recently enacted, Indiana House Bill 1102, was the subject of an article in the July edition of REOMAC Update.

Under prior measures, seizures of abandoned houses by the city were possible only when property taxes are unpaid. Under the new law, fines for offenses such as unsafe building code violations will be treated as a "special assessment" and given the same weight as unpaid property taxes. Therefore in the future, any unpaid building code fines could trigger a tax sale.

The law takes effect in two stages:

Beginning in July, fines levied by cities against negligent property owners will have the same weight as taxes, so if left unpaid, they can trigger tax sales.

Beginning in January 2007, the laws governing tax sales and redemption will change. Historically, a property owner could withhold paying property taxes for three (3)years before their property would come to a tax sale. Under the new law, that time frame will be shortened substantially, to as little as 11 months if the outstanding items are building code violations.

After a vacant or abandoned property is sold through a tax sale, the previous owner will have four (4) months to pay the back taxes and resume ownership, instead of the current "redemption" period of 12 months.