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Vacant houses in Richmond: where are they and who owns them?

The Vacant House Registry for Richmond, Virginia for January 2013 has 1,370 properties listed.

Earlier version of the city’s list of vacant houses were used to power Vacant Richmond before they went off the air. Richmond Slumlord Watch gave a look into who owned some of the vacants around the city while it was up and running. The topic has been enough of an issue that we even have a tag for “vacant” to help tie together all of the stories that have come up. It was a story about a vacant house that originally put CHPN on a lot of folks’ radar.

While there are vacants in much of the city, there are noticeably higher densities of vacant houses in North Highland Park, a band across Fairmount/Church Hill North, and Southside east of Jeff Davis Highway. A mapping of the owners of the vacant houses gives a more evenly distributed picture across the entire metro region (with a surprising number of out-of-state owners). Also, a large number of the vacant house listings provide the address of the vacant house as the address of the owner.

Vacant Houses in Richmond, VA (January 2013) [VIEW LARGER]
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Owners of Vacant Houses in Richmond, VA (January 2013) [VIEW LARGER]
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29 comments

sean stilwell 01/20/2013 at 1:34 PM

Some of these houses are on the market. I’m on this list with a rooming house we fixed and sold (3702 Moss Side). Since the new owner hasn’t closed, no one lives there yet. There are a ton of these mixed in, especially in the nicer areas. still, though, 75% are boarded up messes.

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Becca 01/20/2013 at 2:14 PM

On my block, the boarded up vacancies number more than actual livable homes and of livable homes only 4 are occupied and not 100% of the time. I am sure the home next to me used to be beautiful but now it just drops debris on my little house when its too windy. And some how valued at over 125,000… wtf?

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Alex 01/20/2013 at 3:31 PM

What’s the purpose of this registry? Doesn’t seem like the city does much about the issue so I’m curious why they bother tracking it.

It also seems to be incomplete. I know of at least a couple houses here on the hill that have been vacant for a while that aren’t listed. If this registry did anything, I’d take the time to report them as such but it doesn’t seem to be worth it just for tracking purposes.

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Beth 01/20/2013 at 3:35 PM

This a great resource. Thanks for posting. I’m not surprised that there are so many out-of-towners own the vacant property. If the owners were more local, they would likely address their property’s isssues sooner. It would be great to dig in to the data more to show what is on the market so you can figure out which areas are likely to be re-invested in. You could also measure the changes in vacany over time as well.

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John M 01/20/2013 at 4:04 PM

@Alex –

“A building must be registered with the Commissioner of Buildings when it has been continuously vacant for over 12 months. The registry fee is $25.00 per year and is required annually.” [VIA]

* So that’s about $35,000/year in fees taken in…

“The new registry program, a growing trend among localities, enables the city to maintain an inventory of vacant housing that can be monitored for aggressive code compliance and enforcement.

The city is mailing notifications to approximately 3,200 owners of vacant buildings that must be registered and brought within code compliance by being either adequately boarded and secured or rehabilitated and made suitable for occupancy.” [VIA]

* The number of vacant buildings seems to have been cut in half since 2006 when this first launched.

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Jason 01/20/2013 at 4:26 PM

@6
There really isn’t much the city can do about vacant properties without trampling on people property rights. You think if the city could easily cease these properties they wouldn’t?

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P.Mayo 01/20/2013 at 5:53 PM

“Also, a large number of the vacant house listings provide the address of the vacant house as the address of the owner.”

I find when this is the cases the owner is usually deceased and the property is tax deliquent.

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Sam 01/20/2013 at 6:11 PM

I’ve got to vacant properties on my block and I want them on this list. How do I go about getting them added? Also, $25 is far too cheap try $250 if it is distressed verses on the market.

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Melinda 01/20/2013 at 6:31 PM

Thanks for this. It’s a mess, and we need to keep on pushing for ways to clean it up.

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Martin Bartholmy 01/21/2013 at 3:12 AM

Certainly a useful resource – only plenty of houses seem to be missing. No idea how the reporting system on this works, however with just a superficial check I came across lots of missing dots (just two examples: some of the houses on 31st Street which are boarded up; also no markers for all the vacant houses around 30th and M Street).

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Alex 01/21/2013 at 10:11 AM

@9 – if my quick scan of the registry against houses in my area that I know are vacant is any indication, the reason for the drop might be because houses are incorrectly falling off of the registry.

There are a couple houses nearby that I’m pretty sure I’ve seen on here before but are now off. Nothing’s changed on either in years.

Do you know how we can go about reporting these or is it up to the owner to register themselves?

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Brett F 01/21/2013 at 2:16 PM

The list is dreadfully maintained. As a number of people noted, there are many houses missing. In my case, I stumbled across this list by chance a few weeks ago and found my home on it. Problem is, I actually occupy the house and have lived in it for over half a year since we closed, so clearly no one is checking up on this stuff and, had I not randomly stumbled on the list, my house would STILL be on it.

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John M 01/21/2013 at 4:00 PM

Make sure that you are checking the list, not just the map, as some of the mapping appears to have gone goofy.

On adding properties that are missing:

From the city site:

“If you have questions regarding the Vacant Building List, please contact the Vacant Building Coordinator at (804)646-6398, vacantbuildings@richmondgov.com or visit Room G-12 in City Hall.”

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Steven 01/21/2013 at 8:11 PM

I’ve dealt with this, in particular 415 N 32nd, vacant for almost 10 years. Code violations due no good. The city puts notices on the door which is not occupied. 6 months later the city finally mows the yard and puts a lien on the property. This house is owned by a shady investor in New York. Imminent domain is hard to come by. Best chance is finding a decent investor to buy and flip it. The city sucks in this department.

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Dallas 01/22/2013 at 12:57 AM

Some of us have purchased them and are activly trying to get them fixed up to occupy them. That being said, it is not an easy or cheap process and it takes time to do it right.

Finally, if you really want to effect change, work on getting the law changed so that the city can take properties where the owners are located out of state and there are taxes that are so far behind they exceed the value of the house.

There should also be a rule on how many residential sites a “Chuch” can own where the homes and land themselves are vacant.

The inspectors will tell you that there is nothing they can do if the owner is out of state. You can’t blame the city for a state law. There is nothing they can do.

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Jim Ingersoll 01/22/2013 at 6:56 AM

I like to buy vacant houses and fix them up, so lists like this help me locate them and improve neighborhoods one house at a time.

Jim

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Concerned 01/22/2013 at 11:23 AM

I agree with #20, unless there are sweeping law changes, nothing is going to change this unfortunate reality of central Richmonf living….

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Alex 01/22/2013 at 11:33 AM

@Steven – looks like 415 N 32nd isn’t even on here…

I remembered seeing it on prior lists and as we both know, not a damn thing has been done to it but somehow it’s been given a reprieve for some reason.

I’m going to ask about this one and a couple others that jumped out.

Anyone know how long a property needs to sit vacant before it qualifies for this? I’m also going to ask why the Johannas Towers on Broad aren’t listed as three of the four still haven’t been occupied.

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Alex 01/22/2013 at 11:43 AM

The more I look at this, the more I’m starting to become suspicious that the city is letting homes drop so they can claim progress in fighting the problem without actually doing a damn thing.

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Christina Mastroianni 01/24/2013 at 2:32 PM

The house on our corner 2718 is empty and it’s such a beautiful old house but it seems to be falling into disrepair. It too is not on this list. Pity.

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Alex 01/24/2013 at 7:12 PM

I emailed the city on the ones I noticed offhand that were missing earlier this week. If folks see any others that are left off that they’d like me to pass along, let me know.

No word back yet but that’s par for the course with city employees I think. Usually it seems to take them about 2-3 months to respond to emails. I suspect this is because they don’t use computers often.

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mona price 05/27/2018 at 8:55 AM

Can i just move in an abandon house fix it up

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mona price 05/27/2018 at 8:56 AM

How can i purchase an abandon house

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