If you are planning to leave your house or commercial building in St. Paul, you must register it with the city and pay a fee. Costs start at $ 2459 and go to $ 5410.
The city places the address of the empty ownership on a publicly accessible website, which is super useful for thieves. Your property becomes a magnet for crimes and scams.
Sometimes homeowners are assessed the empty registration costs while they still live in the house. The homeowners continue to live in the house, but sleep in their car at night. These seniors do not want to leave their homes and they cannot afford or find any alternative housing.
Sometimes the homeowner has a house full of clutter that they have collected to the point where there is no room left for sleeping or cooking. I have seen houses where the tonnage of things caused structural damage.
I have a pro-tip for homeowners who have houses that do not have a code and who cannot pay the repairs. Keep your lawn mowed and make sure the snow is released. If the garden looks good, your neighbors will not call the city and complain. If nobody complains, you can live in your house with little fear of visiting city inspectors.
The enforcement of the construction code in St. Paul has been controlled and it has not been enforced evenly. Construction inspectors have a lot of discretion. They can wait 20 years to condemn a house with multiple code -violations, or they can give the homeowner a month before they condemn and try to force the homeowner to pay the registered empty construction costs.
Go to STPaul.GOV for more information about the St. Paul Vacant Building Program. If you want to see a list of empty buildings, search for the STPaul.GOV site.
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