West Virginia City Sues Owner of Vacant Building for Fees and Access
The City of Bluefield, West Virginia is suing the owner of a former supermarket for inspection fees and to allow firefighters access to the building for purposes of preplanning.
The suit is based on a 2015 ordinance that imposes a $1/square foot inspection fee on buildings larger than 20,000 square feet that are left vacant for more than 180 days. According to the suit, a company called K-VA-T owns 36,000 square foot structure that formerly housed a Kroger Supermarket, but that has been vacant since 2012.
City Manager Dane Rideout wants the fee paid, and Fire Chief Rick Cary wants access to the building. According to Chief Cary “Vacant buildings that we do not have access creates more of a problem for us. Not only do we have to make an egress into this building, causes more damage if there is a fire or small fire. Now we would have to replace that door or window we took.”
The $36,000 inspection fee was due on March 3, 2016.
A dollar per square foot? That doesn’t sound like much, until you have a 36,000 square foot vacant supermarket, and you’re billing someone $36,000 because you can’t inspect it.
Sounds like a perfectly good reason for an owner to say “screw it” and abandon the property completely.
“Now we would have to replace that door or window we took.” Seriously? Would they also have to pay for the water damage they did while putting the fire out?