GREGORY D. MALASKA, ESQ. | YOUNG & HAROS, LLC
“I really love this house and community, but that dilapidated home next door is a real turn o”
“I’d love to let my kids play around the neighborhood, but I’m afraid they’ll run over to that abandoned home next door, the one with the broken windows and that terrible smell. Who knows what might be inside?”
“I wish the associaon would nally do something about that shoddy home down the street. It’s hurng our property values.”
Sound familiar? Blighted properes are found in many planned communies throughout the Commonwealth. They pose a problem without geographic boundaries, yet with limited soluons. Fortunately, the Pennsylvania General Assembly and recently, the courts, have granted planned community associaons a new weapon to deal with these troublesome properes.
The Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act (ABPCA) was enacted by the Pennsylvania General
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Assembly in 2009. Recently, two planned community associaons in the Poconos successfully peoned the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas to extend the Act to include common interest communies and allow for the demolion of a blighted and dangerous structure.
THE IMPACT OF BLIGHTED PROPERTIES ON PLANNED COMMUNITIES Blight is dened as “
...something that frustrates hope or impedes progress and prosperity”; “to have a deleterious eect on; to ruin”. Prey depressing stu, huh? The unfortunate reality is that these depressing properes are found everywhere from urban streets to rural subdivisions.
Regardless of locaon, blight is caused by the same factors: a down economy, defaulted mortgages, crime, vandalism, or family problems. All of these causes manifest themselves in a property that is poorly maintained, unaracve and, in some case, dangerous. If allowed to go unchecked, blighted properes can serve as aracve nuisances for children, harm the community’s appearance, and adversely impact property values. Blighted properes, or more
specically, the failure to address the problems caused by them, can also impact the unit owners’ condence in their associaon.
A planned community associaon’s tradional “Plan A” in dealing with blighted properes was to le suit against the unit owner to force the repair/ demolion of the structure. This opon was expensive, me consuming, and somemes akin to pushing an elephant up a hill. In many cases, the associaon could not even obtain service against the violang unit owner. Moreover, if service was completed, the owner was oenmes insolvent or judgment proof. While the Associaon could obtain court approval to tear down the building (at its cost), the me and costs involved turned this noble exercise into a Pyrrhic eort.
“Plan B” was to seek assistance from the local municipality, as many Townships and Boroughs have “dangerous structure” or “nuisance” ordinances in their municipal codes. However, associaons seeking
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