On January 29^th, the first administrative hearing was held regarding Countrywide Home Loans Inc.’s failure to maintain a vacant foreclosed residence in the 600 block of 8th Street.  Countrywide received both a notice of the violations present at the property and the subsequent notice of the hearing after they failed to abate the violations.

Countrywide failed to appear at the hearing and, based on the evidence presented, the Hearing Officer found they were in violation of the ordinance and imposed a $30,000 fine.  The fine was determined at the $1,000 per day rate for each of the 30 days following the deadline without compliance.  By failing to appear at the hearing, Countrywide waived all appeal rights of the Hearing Officer’s determination and the imposition of the fine.

The City’s Code Enforcement unit is obtaining an Abatement Warrant to clean up the property and those costs will also be billed to Countrywide and collected as a special assessment lien if they fail to pay.  If Countrywide continues to neglect the property, the daily $1,000 fines will continue and subsequent hearings will be scheduled each time the new fines reach the $30,000 level.