Algood City Council will become the majority owner of a dilapidated property at 164 Main Street needing major cleanup.
City Attorney Danny Rader said there are at least seven owners of the property.
“I haven’t talked to all of them, and there is still one that we are really trying and struggling to locate,” Rader said. “But I have talked to several of them. Four of them have signed deeds to the property conveying their interests in the property to the city of Algood.”
The council will accept the deeds to become the majority owner of the property. Rader said the city would now be obligated to clean up the property.
“One of our next steps is going to be to go over there and get that house torn down,” Rader said. “We have a little bit more work to do, to do that, so we are not gonna do it tomorrow, but we are gonna do that in the relatively near future, and I feel sure we are gonna take some steps well in advance of the October 21 meeting.”
Rader said accepting the deeds does come with a few consequences. Rader said one of the consequences is that the city would have to cover the cleanup cost as the owner. However, Rader said the council should not be concerned.
“Honestly, that’s a fair trade-off because as part owner of the property, if it sold, you would get that value back in that way,” Rader said. “So I don’t recommend that, that’s a problem.”
Rader said the other consequence is that the property may still be subject to a TennCare lien.
“I’m not saying that you guys are gonna be able to keep this property for any length of time,” Rader said. “We may have to auction it in order to satisfy that lien and to satisfy the other three sevenths, two sevenths, or one seventh interest in the property. But it puts you in a better posture than you are now. It gives you the opportunity and the obligation to go clean it up, which is something I know that you all have been very keen to do.”
Rader said a fifth owner is planning to sign over interests to the property. Rader also said he is unsure if the city will be able to get all seven owners to sign over a deed.
“I think there’s a pretty good chance that we are gonna at least get five or six out of the seven interests,” Rader said. “And of course, the seventh interest is the one I am still trying to locate the individual. We have made a strong effort to do that. We have a signed return receipt for that paperwork, but we have not had any contact from them, and we are not confident in that address. So we still have a little bit of work to do on that, but we are making a ton of progress.”
Rader mentioned that most of the owners knew about the property but were unaware of the interests they had in the property.
