Palm Beach County looking to clean up unkept foreclosures with a foreclosure registry proposal

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - Uncut lawns and green pools have become a familiar sight at abandoned homes over the years, but Palm Beach County is trying to change that by proposing an ordinance to crack down on homes in disarray. 

As a real estate agent, Carl Knottnerus has seen his fair share of foreclosed homes.

"It's horrible," Knottnerus said. "I mean you see stuff that hasn't been mowed for six, seven, eight months, the doors are off the hinges, all the appliances are gone."

But the county is trying to clean up these type of yards from getting out of hand by implementing a new foreclosure registry to track vacant homes.

"We want to have safe properties in Palm Beach County," Palm Beach County Code Enforcement Director Kurt Eismann said. "We want to make sure they're taken care of and just because the property is foreclosed is no reason to forget it."

To start the foreclosure process, lenders have to file a $150 dollar notice to the courts, Eismann said.

Palm Beach County Code Enforcement says once that's done, the new proposed ordinance would also make the owner have to register with the county.

"You'd be able to reach out and have somebody maintain the property without having to find out through the records to find out who actually owns it they'd have to come forward," Eismann said.

But the ordinance wouldn't just make them have to register as the owner.

"Part of this registration would require a sign be posted in the window which would say who is responsible for maintaining the property and their contact information," Eismann added.

By not registering, Eismann says the owner could be fined a minimum of $50 a day, but Knottnerus says that could be tough to enforce.

"If there was a way of knowing this is coming down the pike and the bank knows it's going to have the property or own the property at some point then they could enforce it," Knottnerus said. "But I don't see the bank doing anything to the property. They hardly do anything the property now."

Something code enforcement wants to change, in order to keep value in Palm Beach County homes.

The county says the ordinance could be in front of the county commission as early as next month.