The city of Cuero has a vacant building ordinance that requires property owners to maintain vacant buildings or else. And as with anything involving government, or else means that you will be fined, sent to jail, or have your property seized.
Defenders of the ordinance make a number of arguments in favor of issuing threats to property owners. One of those arguments is the “community cost” of vacant buildings. This article cites a study that found that
the typical community cost of a vacant building to be about $220,000. The number accounts for lost rents, property taxes, utilities, supplies, services and salaries.
In other words, since a vacant building generates little or no economic activity, the community is justified in forcing the owner to maintain his property.
Certainly, an unmaintained building can present an objective threat to others. A building that is on the verge of collapse, poses an imminent fire risk, or is a haven for vermin is a threat to the property and well-being of others. In such instances, the owner should be required to remove the threat. But that is not the argument made. Defenders cite the economic activity lost to the community as the justification for violating property rights.
One defender of the ordinance stated, “No one person’s property rights are more important than their neighbor’s.” This is true, but the solution isn’t the violation of property rights. The solution is to respect everyone’s right to property.
The right to property means the freedom to use one’s property as one chooses. If one decides, for whatever reason, to leave a building unoccupied and unmaintained, that is his right. However, if the building becomes an objective nuisance or threat to freedom of others to use their property as they choose, then the vacant building owner is violating the property rights of others.
The stated purpose of the ordinance is to revitalize downtown Cuero as a part of the city’s effort to preserve historic buildings. Since the owners of vacant buildings aren’t voluntarily helping to accomplish that goal, the city has decided to force property owners to “cooperate.”