City taking action on abandoned property

The city is about to take action on abandoned property in a process that eventually ends in its sale.
The city has about 100 properties where the tax has not been paid, which eventually tags them with the “adjudicated” label.
Eunice Mayor Scott Fontenot said, “This is the first time, I think in the parish’s history, that we are going to actually take this on with as many properties as we are. I think in the past they have sold them individually ...”
The city has contracted with CivicSource to do the leg work necessary to offer adjudicated property for sale online.
CivicSource started after Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area, he said.
The company does the background work that leads to making the property eligible for title insurance, he said. In the past, that’s been the work of the city attorney, he said.
“If there is a way we can sell these properties and put them back into commerce we might never collect what is owed on the tax, but we won’t have to maintain it,” he said.
The cost to maintain the properties falls on the city he said.
“A lot of people are already asking about it,” he said of the pending auction.
The minimum bid is $5,000, he said. Potential bidders are first asked to pay $750 to start the process of a title search and notifying the owners, he said.
If the person who puts up the $750 ends up buying the property the $750 is deducted from the sale price, he said.
“It is more than past time we get rid of these properties, he said.
“We’ve got to do something. If we don’t the whole town is going to be in disrepair,” he said.
Fontenot said St. Landry Parish Assessor Rhyn Duplechin has played a major role advising the city and parish about the process.
Duplechin said there are about 40 properties adjudicated to the city, another 40 to the parish and city and about 20 to the parish alone in Eunice.
There are about 900 adjudicated properties in the parish, he said.
“My suggestion to them is to have something to give notice to local people so they can bid on them,” Duplechin said.
As part of that process, the assessor updated a map on his website recently to show the adjudicated properties.
Every attempt is made to locate the owners of the properties, he said.
Often the heirs to properties don’t keep up on the property tax and the costs mount making it difficult to redeem the property, he said.
“We do all we can to help, “ he said about notifying people of delinquent taxes.
Duplechin agreed with Fontenot that the process should help put abandoned properties back into commerce.
The mayor said Parish President Bill Fontenot is also working on the property sale.