Property taxes unpaid? Norfolk's cracking down.

NORFOLK

The city treasurer's office will crack down on property owners who don't pay their taxes on time in an effort to stem a backlog of accounts that has left Norfolk short of revenue.

Earlier this month, a Virginian-Pilot investigation revealed the city was owed millions in delinquent real-estate taxes, with roughly 900 parcels at least three years overdue.

Norfolk is owed $9.8 million in delinquent real-estate taxes, according to Ron Williams, the city's budget director. Outdated and passive collection practices are part of the problem. On Tuesday, officials unveiled an aggressive plan to use the best practices from other cities to get properties back onto the rolls.

"We're internally putting measures in place to go after these folks," said Vice Mayor Anthony L. Burfoot, who also is the city's deputy treasurer. "We're going to be aggressive in terms of getting them back on the tax rolls."

The treasurer's office will hire an auctioneer to sell some of the most valuable land and has asked the City Council to pass laws barring property owners from obtaining business licenses or building permits until taxes are paid. It's also considering putting liens on some owners' state income taxes.

Elsewhere in South Hampton Roads, cities have used those techniques to keep delinquencies down.

In Chesapeake, Treasurer Barbara Carraway places income tax liens on any owner who falls more than four months behind. In Portsmouth and Suffolk, auctioneers conduct large-scale sales every few months, drawing dozens of potential buyers.

That's left those cities in much better shape. While Norfolk in April had nearly 300 parcels that were more than 10 years delinquent on tax payments, Portsmouth had 14 and Chesapeake had 34.

In addition to the new measures to collect money owed, Norfolk will clean up its property lists, devaluing tiny scraps of land that can't be built on or are underwater, and taking them off the city's active tax sale list.

As of May, nearly 700 properties were on that list. The worthless parcels are jumbled in with usable side yards, buildable lots, and houses - leaving investors to figure out which properties might be valuable.

A number of real estate investors have said they avoid tax sales in Norfolk because the process is too confusing and arcane.

On Tuesday, Williams said the treasurer's office would be more proactive in marketing tax-delinquent properties. Part of that will be holding regular auctions to sell bunches of delinquent parcels, officials said.

"We're hoping selling numbers of properties at one time, we're going to get more people in a room ready to buy," deputy treasurer Carl Cox said. "The auction piece is something we've been missing. It's going to be more effective in bringing in dollars."

The city also will look at a program to sell side lots to neighbors for $1, in hopes of getting small parcels back on the tax rolls. That would require lobbying the General Assembly for a charter change, officials said.

"We certainly should make that a priority," Councilman Barclay C. Winn said.

Burfoot said the city will use computer software to identify severely delinquent properties and deal with them first. The city has a number of properties that are more than 20 years overdue.

"What we're trying to do is put policies in place, procedures in place, so these things don't slip through the cracks," Burfoot said. Cleaning up the property lists and getting small parcels in the hands of neighbors should aid that effort, he said.

"That's one thing we feel we can do in a really short time, to get those numbers down, and deal with those nonconforming lots."

Meghan Hoyer, (757) 446-2293, meghan.hoyer@pilotonline.com