Majority leader asks counsel to draft law requiring insurance or financial responsibility for vacant, abandoned properties

The Buffalo City Committee on Finance debated whether the city can require insurance or another lawful financial-responsibility mechanism for newly acquired vacant or abandoned properties to protect taxpayers from demolition and remediation costs.

Majority leader (speaker 4) opened the item by citing two recent fires and asking corporation counsel to draft proposed local-law amendments to the Buffalo City code within 30 days. He said the aim is to make owners—particularly commercial or investment purchasers—financially accountable so the city is not left to pay large demolition bills. "So if it's gonna cost $2,000,000 to demo a building... we can assess that you need to probably have about $2,000,000 set aside to protect that property," he said.

Corporation counsel (speaker 5) told the committee the office would prepare a proposal and said the city's legal authority is constrained in private residential sales; ordinances, however, can impose requirements on businesses and investment purchasers. Counsel described alternatives being researched, including risk-mitigation products for community members who cannot or do not purchase traditional insurance, and noted the upcoming redemption/auction process as a relevant context for the proposal.

Council members pressed on enforcement and collection: members asked how much the city has spent on stabilizing privately owned vacant properties, how often costs have been successfully billed back, and whether the council could pair any new financial-responsibility rule with progressive tax or registry tools for repeat offenders. Corporation counsel and staff cited in rem proceedings and the ability to pierce corporate veils in some cases but acknowledged persistent challenges identifying owners and collecting past costs.

The committee closed discussion and tabled the item for further work; members requested the draft ordinance, enforcement options, and any data on past city expenditures and collections be provided to the council for follow-up review.