Bylaw officers to begin visiting properties to do exterior inspections
Work begins this week in Windsor to address a list of about 700 rundown buildings.
Building by-law officers will be visiting the properties, doing exterior inspections, calling the owners and issuing orders for repairs.
Ward 3 Councillor Rino Bortolin says this is a proactive approach to deal with the issue that brings down nearby property values and attracts crimes.
The list has been compiled by calls to 311 and previous complaints.
Bortolin says it is long overdue.
"We have heard some of the building inspectors say that some of this will lead to demolition and that's because realistically, we probably could have used the strategy like this 5-10 years ago and if we had it in place 5-10 years ago, we wouldn't see the demolitions because people would be forced to keep their properties up to a certain standard," he says.
He admits the issue will not be solved overnight, but it will get the ball rolling to tackle the issue of rundown or derelict buildings.