(a) Any expenses or costs, including but not limited to attorneys fees, costs of inspection, administrative staff and support staff, property maintenance costs, court costs, title search fees, process server fees, skip tracing expenses, and costs of collection or prosecution, including discovery and deposition expenses, incurred under the provisions for demolition or boarding contained in this Housing Code shall be paid by the owner of the dwelling structure or premises.
(b) Any and all owners of a building or structure, who appear in the chain of title from the time of receipt of a notice of condemnation until demolition of the building or structure, shall be jointly and severally responsible for all costs and expenses incurred relating to the demolition and all costs and expenses of prosecution or collection related thereto.
(c) Whenever an inspection is made after the compliance date stated on a notice of violation of the Housing Code or the Zoning Code or after a compliance date determined by a court of competent jurisdiction for compliance to determine whether the violation has been remedied and the violation has not been remedied, there shall be charged a fee of fifty dollars ($50.00) for each such inspection, except that this fee shall not apply to one (1) family and two (2) family owner-occupied dwelling structures.
(d) If the owner fails to pay for the cost of demolition or boarding or of inspections of violations that have not been remedied within thirty (30) days after the receipt from the Director of Community Development of a statement of the charges and costs incurred therein, then the Director of Community Development may certify the amount to the Commissioner of Assessments and Licenses. The Commissioner shall make written return to the County Auditor of the action, under this Code, with a statement of the charges for their services, the amount paid for the performing of such labor and a proper description of the premises for the purpose of making the same a lien upon such lands, to be collected as other taxes and returned to the City with the General Fund with special accounting thereof in accordance with RC 715.261.
(e) Notwithstanding the method of collection set forth above, the Director of Law, in the Director’s sole discretion, may take any action necessary to collect the costs of demolition or boarding from the owner or other responsible party or parties, including but not limited to filing of legal proceedings, referring the amount due to outside counsel by the Law Director for collection action, including filing civil complaints, and initiating post judgment execution actions.
(Ord. No. 1519-11. Passed 11-14-11, eff. 11-16-11)