code violation notice issue

Hi, All:

I don't know whether anyone has similar experience as I have below, please give me comments.
I add my name to my brother-in-law's house to help lowering down mortgage.
I never live at that house.
Everything seems OK until the house was rented out during 2006. Tenants already moved out on 2009.
The tenants didn't keep house environments, violate city code 17.72.030 Prohibition of Blighted Property, and got tickets fine.
Problem is I'm not aware of this issue until I got bad credit report notice for collection charge on 2009.
Originally I thought just one ticket, as long as I paid off it, then this things should be finished.
So I paid $848.30 on 6/9/2009 to clean this collection charge issue.
But things made me mad is I got another collection charge notice for this same Blighted issue again on Feb, 2010.
I asked and just found out there are several tickets issued from Feb, Mar, ..2006.
The one I paid, original fine is $250, end up I paid $848.30.
Another ticket original fine is $500, now keep growing up more than $910.24.
I asked City official, I didn't get any ticket notice, and I'm not the one who violated this Blighted issue, why should I become victim of this issue.
They just answered everything was done properly.

I don't understand why City official just sent out ticket notice, and don't care whether you received it or not.
They are not the one who needs to pay money, they don't have any sympathy, and they just bullied you and asked you to pay.
I don't know why they cannot send to my tax-filing address or uses certified mail to make sure I received it. Not just sent it out and don't care about it. And why they sent out another collection charge on 2010 after I paid off the 1st one on 2009.
I felt mad, because it's really unfair to me.
I know nothing about it, and I'm not the one who violated this Blighted issue, but now I'm forced to pay this.
What can I do?
Can I accuse City official's negligence not sending notice to my tax-filing address?
Or should I go to find out tenants and accuse them?

Any comments are welcome.

Thanks

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I believe John to be right and the responsibility sits with the owner.

The question I have is where is the association involvement? The OP may shortly receive a bill from the Association if they find out where he lives and it looks like that is common knowledge now. Something strange here.

But, oh the joys of being a Landlord, especially in an association.

Hi, All:

Thanks for all your comments.
The Brighted issue was happened at 2006 when the house was rent out.
These ticket fines were issued at that time from Feb, Mar, ..2006. Finally tenants fixed this issue after several tickets fine on 2006.
The problem is I know nothing of these issues until 2009 I got bad credit report.
Think you didn't live at that rented house, how could you know what's happened.
My point is why the ticket fine cannot be sent to owner's tax-filing address to let owner's know since it's owner's responsibility. Then this issue can be quickly resolved. Not just sent out mail to the address that doesn't have any response and let issue keeps hanging here.
Well I'm really in bad luck because as you said: The violations are generally posted to the front door of the property ... if you are an absentee owner ... tough luck.
Don't you think this kind of notice system didn't work?
Shouldn't they change the way to let the person who is responsible to really got noticed to fix problem, not just sent out mail and don't care about it.
This notice system is not efficient, not working well. Why City officials cannot improve this notice system to make things easily resolved?

Chung,
Nor am I being critical just productive. If you really want to change any laws rules, etc., and just not bitch because you got fined and I strongly suspect you didn't care about what the renters did until you started to hurt, then you become the concerned citizen. I think you have a good grasp of the English and through time you will be able to articulate better. You certainly were able to tell the city officals, what you think and they certainly replied in the proper manner. BUT, if you are serious about your government, be it city, association , state or national government, you can made a change, you just have to have a desire to help the government and the perseverance to get the job done. Don't do it because you think it is right in your opinion, do it because it will help. All in all you sound like a pretty nice fella, you just got caught in your own fallacies and Lord knows we all do that, me first is not always the best route. Still would like to know where the HOA part comes in.

Chungying more than likely the letters were either mailed to or posted at the address of the violation. I understand your frustration but that is how the system is set up and to change it you need to contact the people who set it up. Bottom line you and your brother-in-law owned the property; you and he are responsible for its care and up-keep, not the tenant even if they caused the fines. Now you may be able to sue the tenant (if you can find them) in small claims court to recoup some of the fine. But I would not hold my breath; even if you get a judgment, you still must collect it. While you are responsible for the fines if you contact the city they may knock off some of the interest and other charges.

P.S. Is your brother-in-law at least paying half of the fines? As joint owner he should.

Chungying,
It bewilders me that a poster would get on here, ask for advice, and expect the advice to be to his liking. Whether we agree with you or not has no connection to any of us being unfair or "gloating."
I think my friend you have a entirely oversized opinion of yourself. Why would we have the time or interest to care enough to exert the enegry it would take to "gloat" over you., sorry, you just don't count in that way

So you scammed the bank and now have to pay the piper. If you didn't own the property then why isn't the brother-in-law paying the fines?????

So.... its possible you brother-in-law received the notice and not told you. Once you sign your name to a contract, even if you did it to help them get a lower rate, you are responsible, you are part owner.

If you keep getting fined, your brother in law hasn't fixed the problem. You need to have a chat with him and maybe you need new tenants.

In the future, you should re-think signing your name to real estate which you don't have anything to do with. You are just as responsible as your brother-in-law for this property. You signed it.

Chungying,

Listen my friend, the whole word is not wrong and you are the only one that is right.

Your "I just don't get it, why point to home owner’s fault, not tenants. what’s wrong with home owner," pretty much spells it out for you. Everybody gets it but you. Stop beating a dead horse, pay the fines, learn the lesson and move on.
Now you want to insist this is a home owners site. Again everyone else is wrong but you. The answer to this question is "NO".
You are wrong, I expect that is no uncommon for you if you won't listen to common sense. Folks have taken valuable time and tried to help you, you are wrong again, you won't accept this advise.
Tell it to the judge.

Chungying, you are full of oxen manure.

Either you or YOUR brother-in-law should have been monitoring that house from the moment you rented it out. Or the moment he rented it out.

It's not a bicycle or a $50 pair of shoes. It's a dwelling costing, I'm guessing, 10s of thousands of dollars.

Why the he** did your brother-in-law purchase it, even though he himself could not get the financing without roping a family member into having his name on the title?

He expected a return on his investment.

Steve has it right, a homeowner who purchases property and then blatantly ignores it is a slumlord. And those are the people who should get double or even triple fines when their tenants turn the property into a blighted condition.

You do know what "blight" is, don't you? It means it's practically impossible for humans to live there. Probably not a good idea for animals, either.

Again, tough noogies that you didn't get the notices delivered to you on a silver platter. Your brother-in-law should have been on top of this 4 freaking years ago!!

Now he wants to claim, like you, **begin whine** "But I didn't know. . . . "

Hogwash.

He knew. Or he should have known. And he is point-blank lying to you if he says he never got any notices. He did. You can bet on it.

You got SCAMMED by a family member when you signed on to the house, and you are continuing to get SCAMMED by him now.

I know for a fact that the mailing address for the PVA (property valuation administrator) can be changed if the homeowner does not live on the property.

But if your brother-in-law did THAT, then he'd be getting the notices, wouldn't he?

Then he'd have to take responsibility, both financially and with some sweat in trying to fix the situation.

My final advice to you is this:

Fix your freaking property!! The neighbors are getting screwed every day you allow the home to be rented by trash.

You need to call the city and fine out what is owed. If you keep getting fined, you need to visit the property.

Chungying we have told you repeatedly what you need to do, contact the city that issued the fines or go after the tenant that created the problem. While I'm not a lawyer these are the only options I see. At the end of the day, as owner of record, you are responsible for the condition of the property. You don't know what condition the appliances were in or how many there were, they are known as attractive nuisances (see below). You are just fortunate that no one was injured by the appliances or you and your brother-in-law would have been out more than a few fines.

From your posts I gather the rental property is in one city while you two live in another so you don't really know what the conditions were. If you are going to keep renting the property, I would suggest you hire a property manager in that city to make periodic inspections to keep this from happening in the future and to protect your investment.

In the law of torts, the attractive nuisance doctrine states that landowner may be held liable for injuries to children trespassing on the land if the injury is caused by a hazardous object or condition on the land that is likely to attract children who are unable to appreciate the risk posed by the object or condition. The doctrine has been applied to hold landowners liable for injuries caused by abandoned cars, piles of lumber or sand, trampolines, and swimming pools. However, it can be applied to virtually anything on the property of the landowner.

There are none so blind as those that refuse to see.

O.K. I admit it. I'm hooked. On the never-ending saga of Chungying! For me this has become priceless entertainment. I now check out HOATalk every day just to see if the thread has continued! But I do have a serious question - for Chungying. As MaryA asked many comments ago, is this really HOA related? Chungying, is this "blighted" house part of a Home (or Property) Owners Association? HOA/POA???? Not that I want the entertainment to stop (as I said, I am hooked) but how is your problem related to "a forum for Community Association Boards & Other Volunteers to discuss topics concerning their association duties." Maybe you missed that part up at the top of the page....

I fought the law and the law won, I fought the law and the law won.

Que music.....