The Kentucky General Assembly enacted HB422 during last year’s long session. The bill made sweeping changes to responsibilities and authority of code enforcement bodies across the commonwealth. The Kenton County Joint Code Enforcement—which serves the county and 12 of its cities—is now compliant with the all provisions of the new law.
One of the key provisions of the new law is the extension of lienholder priority to all code enforcement violations, including civil and zoning code violations. In order to obtain and maintain this lien priority, however, local governments must implement a system for notification to lienholders to allow them a timeframe to remediate or abate their violations. PDS now provides this lienholder registry service for all joint code enforcement board jurisdictions.
“PDS took on code enforcement responsibilities in a big way roughly ten years ago,” said Dennis Gordon, FAICP, executive director of PDS. “Providing the service was another way to support our local governments and their citizens. That’s a good thing.”
“The bad side of providing the service has been that there was no real revenue stream to fund the effort. So, as local governments do with police, fire, and ambulance services, we depended on tax dollars to administer the service. Among other things, HB422 changed that,” said Gordon.
The lienholder notification system provides lienholders and other interested parties with electronic notifications of all final orders filed by the Kenton County Joint Code Enforcement Board. Citations that are not paid or appealed within seven days of issuance automatically become a final order. Final orders prompt filing of liens against the property.
The board may also issue a final order following an appeal by the property owner. Approximately every ten days, final order information will be sent electronically (emailed) to the parties who have submitted the request form. To receive notifications of final orders issued by the Kenton County Joint Code Enforcement Board, property owners must complete the
online registration form available on the PDS website.
The Kenton County Joint Code Enforcement board serves 12 cities and Kenton County. They are: Crescent Springs, Crestview Hills, Edgewood, Fort Wright, Independence, Kenton Vale, Lakeside Park, Ludlow, Park Hills, Ryland Heights, Taylor Mill, and Villa Hills.
In addition to providing professional staff support to the Kenton County Joint Code Enforcement Board and its 13 jurisdictions, PDS provides code enforcement officers to serve the Cities of Elsmere and Fort Mitchell.
For questions about these services, contact
Emi Randall, AICP, RLA, PDS’ director of planning & zoning administration or
Rob Himes, its codes administrator, for more information at 859.331.8980.