Three bad bills that didn't pass in Minnesota

Three Bad Bills that Didn't Pass in Minnesota

1) Imagine you are selling your condo in downtown Minneapolis on the 23rd
floor. You have a closing date of November 1st, If Representative Newton and
Senator Foley, both , DFL from Coon Rapids, had their way, you would need a
wetland delineation before your condo sale could close. Really.

Their proposed bill required that before transferring an type of property
sellers need to disclose the location of all wetlands on the property as
certified by the county. Problems with this bill included:

*Wetland delineations can cost thousands and also require a surveyor.

*The Counties aren't typically involved in approving wetland delineations,
its often the city and/or the watershed district. Counties aren't set up to
do this-yet another unfunded mandate.

*Wetland delineations must be done during "the growing season", typically
from late April till October 1st, thus few closings could happen in the
winter. Just think how this would effect employment needs and cash flow to
title companies, banks, sellers, etc.

2) Another bill that didn't pass was proposed by Representative Obermueller,
DFL, Eagen. This bill proposed to require the seller to provide a written
disclosure whether the property is or has been a nuisance property during
the seller's ownership. Not only is this redundant to current disclosure
laws, but a nuisance caused by the current property owner typically ceases
when they no longer own the property.

3) A bill proposed by Senator Higgens and Representataive Mullery, both, DFL
Minneapolis wanted to expand the governments power of eminent domain. They
wanted the definition of abandoned property to include "substantially
unoccupied or unused for six months for any commercial or residential
property; taxes past due for one year; and has not been maintained. This
includes any home listed for sale where the seller has moved out of the
property.

This bill passed the Senate but was not taken up for debate on the house
floor.

We owe our thanks to the Christine Berger and Heather Mavencamp of the
Minnesota Association of Realtors for their lobbying to stop these bills
that could have hurt all property owners.