When neighbors wage war on blight: ‘It’s extremely frustrating’

“49A72”

When the auctioneer calls out the lot number, Rachael Bain-Chase’s paddle shoots in the air and stays there.

She and her wife, Jennifer Ralph Chase, are at their first Marion County tax sale, and likely their last. Statistically speaking, they’re very much out of place.

An Indianapolis Star analysis found that individuals looking to buy a single home account for fewer than 4 percent of all liens sold at tax sale. The vast majority of sales — 95 percent — go to either for-profit companies or investors who buy two or more properties.

But people like the Chases, who want the home next door in order to fix up their neighborhood? They don’t participate. And it’s not hard to see why.

“Opening bid: $5,655.61.”

First, you have to have cash, and lots of it. Rachael and Jennifer had to borrow from family and friends to scrape together enough for a respectable bid.

Then, you have to know how to find out a property is even up for auction. Unlike zoning changes, when the government gives nearby property owners notice that something’s afoot, there’s no warning that a home in your neighborhood is up for tax sale.

Check the Marion County treasurer’s website, and you might be able to find it — if you click on the right file. One file lists all of the addresses, but to decipher another, you have to know what a parcel ID number is and how to find it using the city’s mapping software.

Master all of that, and you have to understand redemption periods and how to actually acquire the title, which is not as easy as a straight purchase.

Oh, and hopefully you wrote down the tax sale ID number before you came. That is the number the auctioneer calls at tax sale, instead of the address or the parcel ID.

The Chases did their homework.

“$5,800 … $6,000.” Rachael’s paddle stays up — she’s in a bidding war for 30 Bankers Lane, a house that’s been a sore spot in the neighborhood for as long as they can remember.

They moved to the block 4 1/2 years ago. Next door, there were domestic violence issues, and drugs. It’s been boarded at times, but the plywood never seems to stay up for long. At some point, squatters ripped out the plumbing and some of the wiring.

The owner is Samuel Brooks, whose given address is a UPS box in Palo Alto, Calif. But the Chases say a local woman has been managing it. And her latest tenant to sign a lease, Jennifer said, did so only to discover that there was no water or electricity.

“It’s been a few years of a nightmare,” said Jennifer, 36. “There’s definitely some fear — a lot of anxiety. What’s going to happen next? Who’s going to show up at that property?

“It’s sort of this just persistent sense of anxiety that I have,” she said. “I want to feel safe and comfortable in my home.”

She and Rachael, 43, have never been victims of any violence, but they worry for their two daughters.

“$6,200 … $6,400.

“Sold for $6,400.”

But their journey is just beginning — even after going through all that, they have to wait a year. That’s because Rachael and Jennifer didn’t really purchase a house. They bought a tax lien. The owner has a year to redeem it with interest. If that happens, Rachael and Jennifer’s neighborhood rehab dreams will be thwarted.

“It’s extremely frustrating to think that they’d have 12 months to decide, ‘we’d like to get that house back,’ ” Jennifer said.

Even more frustrating: It doesn’t have to be that way.

Under a new state law, they should have been able to buy such a home outright. The home hasn’t had utilities in more than year, one of the determining factors of abandonment. Right now, it’s not even habitable under the health code.

Senate Enrolled Act 422 in 2014 shortened and moved the redemption period to 120 days before the sale for a home the city certifies as abandoned. But because a subsequent fix to the law only took effect July 1, there weren’t enough days before the Oct. 8 tax sale to notify delinquent homeowners of the new redemption period this year.

“It’s a sore spot,” Jennifer said. “It’s an eyesore on our road, on our street. Every other home is nice and taken care of. And this house — the county was just out again to board up windows and doors that weren’t secure.

“Our patience has run out. Our goodwill has run out. We have children, and we’re just not OK with this nonsense happening in our neighborhood any more.”

Call Star reporter Brian Eason at (317) 444-6129. Follow him on Twitter: @brianeason.

About the series

Abandoned Indy is an occasional series exploring the causes of urban blight in Indianapolis neighborhoods, and the reasons it persists.

TODAY: Couple find it hard to take control of the abandoned house next door.

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