Montgomery Has No Vacant Property Registry: The Board-Up Spec Buried in the Building Code, and the Lien Your Mortgage Outranks

Most cities in this series got to their current position by adding law. Montgomery got to its position by taking law away. It repealed its own unsafe-buildings article in 2006 and left the space empty. It had a vacant-structures registration division drafted and on a council agenda twice, in 2017 and again in 2019, and neither became law. And the state's enabling act for vacant property registration gives it no authority to adopt one, because that act reaches a single class of municipality and Birmingham is the city in it. What is left is a single vacancy-keyed duty tucked inside a technical-code amendment, and a condemnation process that runs on state law from end to end.

What Montgomery Repealed, and What It Declined

Chapter 5 of the Code of Ordinances tells the story in two words. Article I is "RESERVED". Article II is "RESERVED", with an editor's note recording that "Ord. No. 43-2006, Sec. 1, adopted August 1, 2006, repealed article II, Secs. 5-31—5-39 in its entirety, which pertained to unsafe buildings or structures, and derived from Ord. No. 10-2001 …". Twenty years on, nothing has been enacted in its place.

The repeal carried a savings clause that still matters to any long-running file: Section 2 of Ord. No. 43-2006 provides that "any abatement demolition proceeding commenced prior to the effective date of this ordinance will not be affected by the repeal of said ordinance and shall continue under Ordinance 10-2001 until completion, discontinue or dismissal." A proceeding begun before the repealing ordinance took effect in 2006 is still governed by the repealed text; the editor's note gives August 1, 2006 as the adoption date and does not state the effective date.

Registration was proposed and did not pass. Council agendas for 19 September and 3 October 2017 list an ordinance "amending the Code of Ordinances Chapter 12, Article II Nuisances to create a new division entitled Vacant and Abandoned Structures Registration", and agendas for 19 February and 5 March 2019 carry an "ordinance adopting Regulations regarding the Registration and Maintenance of Vacant Buildings and Enforcement Procedures and Penalties" as old business. Chapter 12, Article II today runs Divisions 1 through 5 — generally, overgrown grass and weeds, stagnant water, abandoned or obsolete signs, and abatement of nuisances — with no vacant-structures division, and Article III is "RESERVED". The code is the evidence that neither proposal landed. The agenda item wording and the voting record are not something this page can confirm from a primary source — the city's agenda documents were not readable — so treat the two proposals as reported rather than verified.

Why a Registry Is Not Available to Montgomery

Alabama did pass a vacant property registration enabling act, and it does not reach Montgomery. 2026 HB315, which the House passed on March 17, 2026 as amended and both houses passed on April 7, 2026, with an effective date of October 1, 2026 under Section 10, is captioned as "relating to vacant real property located in a Class 1 municipality; to authorize the governing body of a Class 1 municipality to enact and enforce vacant property registration ordinances", and Section 1 states flatly: "This act shall apply only to a Class 1 municipality." It was referred in the House to Jefferson County Legislation.

The classes come from Ala. Code Sec. 11-40-12, and the mechanism is the part people miss: the statute establishes "eight classes of municipalities based on the population as certified by the 1970 federal decennial census", with Class 1 being "all cities with a population of 300,000 inhabitants or more" and Class 3 "all cities with a population of not less than 100,000 and not more than 174,999 inhabitants". Subsection (c) places a municipality incorporated after June 28, 1979 by its population at incorporation, which does not affect Montgomery. Because the brackets are pinned to 1970 figures rather than to current population, Montgomery's growth in the half-century since cannot promote it. Montgomery is treated as Class 3 in the Legislature's own local-law codification at Ala. Code Sec. 45-51A-34, and Birmingham is generally understood to be the only Class 1 city — consistent with the act being referred to Jefferson County Legislation, though this page has not confirmed it from a census record. What follows is that the 2026 act gives Montgomery no registry authority. Whether the city could enact one on its existing powers is a separate question this page does not answer, and Section 9 of the act states that its provisions "shall be supplemental and in pari materia with other laws of the State of Alabama relating to vacant or abandoned property."

Birmingham's position under that act — the definitions, the 90-day vacancy test, the registration deadlines, the fee caps and the explicitly subordinate lien — is set out separately in what Alabama's HB315 authorizes. Nothing in it applies in Montgomery.

The One Vacancy-Keyed Duty

Montgomery adopts the 2024 International Property Maintenance Code at Sec. 5-71 and amends a handful of its provisions. One of those amendments, Sec. 5-71(g)(2), is the only duty in the building code keyed to vacancy. One other vacancy-keyed provision sits outside Chapter 5 and matters if the asset is in a historic district: Sec. 15-126(a)(2) treats maintaining a historic property "in a manner that threatens the structural integrity of the property" as demolition by neglect and imposes eight maintenance standards, with limb i. allowing an unoccupied building to meet them through a board-approved mothballing plan instead. Sec. 15-126(a)(2)j. lets the city take a complaint to municipal court or proceed under the Chapter 12 nuisance route. It opens as a condemnation-and-closure power: "If the structure is vacant and unfit for human habitation and occupancy, and is not in danger of structural collapse, the code official is authorized to post a placard of condemnation on the premises and order the structure closed up so as not to be an attractive nuisance."

Read the trigger carefully, because all three limbs must hold: the structure is vacant, and unfit for human habitation and occupancy, and not in danger of structural collapse. A vacant building in sound condition does not meet it. A vacant building in danger of structural collapse does not meet it either, and the emergency route is narrower still: Sec. 5-71(g)(4) requires imminent danger. A building in danger but not imminent danger falls outside both. And "vacant" is left undefined in the municipal text, with no time period and no evidence-of-vacancy list anywhere in Chapter 5.

On the owner's failure to comply, the city does the work and bills it: "the code official shall cause the premises to be closed and secured through any available public agency or by contract or arrangement by private persons and the cost thereof shall be charged against the real estate upon which the structure is located and shall be a lien upon such real estate and shall be collected by any other legal resource."

The Board-Up Specification

What follows that lien sentence in the same subsection is the most prescriptive securing standard in this entire series, and it is the reason Montgomery is worth a page despite having no registry. The subsection sets out procedures: verify disconnection of service utilities to the building; remove all combustible furniture, clothing, trash, debris and junk from all levels including the attic space and exterior, with items of value excluded from removal and permitted to remain; and conduct a search of the entire building "to ensure that it is un-occupied".

Then the materials and method. The entire perimeter of an opening "should provide a solid, attachable surface for which the exterior grade sheeting (1/2 plywood, grade CDX or OSB board) may be attached." Attachment uses "minimum 1½" corrosion resistant nails or screws spaced not more than 12" along the perimeter and interior supports." Interior supports "should be 2x4 nominally dimensional wood cut to fit against perimeter supports and anchored with four (4) 12d cement coated nails or equivalent on each end", spaced "no greater than 24" O.C." Any opening requiring more than one sheet "is required to be supported along all edges by interior supports." The main entrance "is required to be secured by ½" CDX grade plywood or OSB board attached to perimeter supports with 1½" minimum corrosion resistant screws at a minimum of 12" O.C.", with "no interior supports … required for 36" x 80" openings." And "sheeting attachment should be in such a manner as to minimize the intrusion of rain."

Two things about how this is drafted change how a contractor should treat it. First, the verbs are mixed. The lead sentences are mandatory — the official "shall cause the premises to be closed and secured" — and the main-entrance and multi-sheet paragraphs say "is required to", which makes those the clearly mandatory lines. The three opening procedures — verify the utilities are off, clear the combustibles, sweep the building for occupants — are bare imperatives with no modal at all. It is the materials and spacing lines where "should" does the work, so the dimensional specification reads as the city's stated expectation rather than an unambiguous command. Second, the published text carries a drafting artifact: the bullet permitting items of value to remain ends with a bare "(?)" in the code as Municode prints it.

A practical note for anyone scoping board-up work in Montgomery: this specification is Montgomery's own amendment and is printed in full in the municipal code, so it can be relied on and cited. The rest of the 2024 IPMC and the 2024 IEBC are adopted by reference at Sec. 5-71 and are copyrighted ICC text that Municode does not reproduce — three paper copies are filed with the City Clerk. Anything beyond Montgomery's own amendments has to be read from the ICC edition, not from the online code.

Condemnation and Demolition Costs Run on State Law

Because the local unsafe-buildings article is gone, condemnation and cost recovery in Montgomery operate under Ala. Code Chapter 11-53B, enacted as Act 2002-522. Montgomery's own code points there explicitly: Sec. 5-71(g)(5) amends IPMC 111.2 to read "notices and orders to comply with State of Alabama Code 11-53-8" and Sec. 5-71(i)(3) amends IEBC 117.2 to "State of Alabama Code 11-53-B". Both citations are garbled as published, as are the chapter cites in Sec. 5-71(g)(4) and (i)(2); the chapter actually being referenced throughout is 11-53B.

The state process is a finding, a notice, and two separate hearings. Sec. 11-53B-2 lets a municipality demolish or repair buildings "found by the governing body of the municipality to be unsafe to the extent of being a public nuisance from any cause", upon a finding of necessity and after notice. Sec. 11-53B-3(b) directs the owner, depending on which the notice requires, either to accomplish the specified repairs within 45 days of the notice — or to file a work plan inside that window if they cannot be finished in it — or to demolish within 45 days. Sec. 11-53B-4 then gives any person with an interest 30 days from the date notice is given to request a hearing before the governing body, held not less than five nor more than 30 days after the request.

There is a second hearing on the money, and it is easy to miss. Sec. 11-53B-5 requires the governing body to adopt a resolution fixing the costs, provides that "any person, firm, or corporation having an interest in the property may be heard at the meeting as to any objection he or she may have to the fixing of such costs or the amounts thereof", and requires the municipal clerk to notice that meeting by first-class mail "to all entities having an interest in the property whose address and interest is determined from the tax assessor's records on the property or as otherwise known to the clerk." Salvage proceeds must be applied against the demolition cost.

Appeal from the governing body's determination runs to the circuit court, and it is both short and bonded. Sec. 11-53B-4 provides that "any person aggrieved by the decision of the governing body at the hearing may, within 10 days thereafter, appeal to the circuit court upon filing with the clerk of the court notice of the appeal and bond for security of costs in the form and amount to be approved by the circuit clerk." The appeal is a preferred case and is tried without a jury.

The Lien, and the Carve-Out That Matters

This is the part worth reading twice if you hold a mortgage on Montgomery property. Sec. 11-53B-5 makes the fixing of costs an assessment against the parcel and a lien for the amount assessed, and then ranks it: "the lien shall be superior to all other liens on the property except liens for taxes, and except for mortgages recorded prior to the creation of the lien for the assessment, and shall continue in force until paid."

An express carve-out for prior-recorded mortgages is unusual. Elsewhere in this series the statutory path runs the other way or leaves the question open — Louisiana routes a code-enforcement charge into a ranking paragraph that says nothing about mortgages at all, and several Ohio and Oklahoma mechanisms claim parity with ad valorem taxes. Alabama states the answer on the face of the statute, and the answer favours the lender who recorded first. A later-recorded mortgage does not get that protection.

What the lien does survive is a tax sale. Sec. 11-53B-6 lets the municipality assess costs against property purchased by the State at a tax sale, and provides that "a subsequent redemption thereof by any person authorized to redeem, or sale thereof by the state, shall not operate or discharge, or in any manner affect the lien of the city for the assessment" — any redemptioner or purchaser "shall take the same subject to the assessment." Sec. 11-53B-16 reaches backwards as well, applying "to all assessment liens for demolition or renovation of record as of July 1, 2002."

The default mechanism in Sec. 11-53B-8 is the sharpest edge in the Alabama chapter. Miss the 30-day payment window, or miss a single installment once you have elected them, and "the whole assessment lien shall immediately become due and payable", after which the collecting officer "shall proceed to sell the property against which the assessment lien is made to the highest bidder for cash, but in no event less than the amount of the lien plus interest through the date of default", on three consecutive weeks of published notice. Sections 11-53B-9 through 11-53B-14 then govern the sale, redemption, extension of redemption and certificate of warning to redeem.

The Separate Nuisance Track

Chapter 12 handles grass, weeds, litter, junk and stagnant water, and it is not vacancy-specific — but it is where most routine Montgomery enforcement on an empty property actually happens, and it has one wrinkle that is. Sec. 12-132(a) identifies the owner "as the information is listed in the records of the tax assessor or revenue commissioner", and provides that "if the property is vacant, written notice will be mailed by first class mail to the owner of said property" — dropping the copy that would otherwise go to an occupant.

The clock is ten days from the notice, and the objection procedure is tighter than the clock suggests. Sec. 12-133(a) requires a written objection to reach both the chief property maintenance inspector and the city clerk "at least four business days prior to" the council meeting at which the abatement resolution will be presented. Sec. 12-133(b) then provides that "the decision of the city council on the matter shall be deemed final and conclusive", and Sec. 12-133(c) provides that a failure to object in time or to appear means "no additional public hearing will be held on an individual property and abatement of the nuisance will proceed and costs of the abatement assessed."

Costs here are collected as taxes. Sec. 12-135(b) makes the amounts "nuisance or weed liens", directs the collecting official to add them "to the next regular bills for taxes levied against the respective lots", and provides that they are then "collected at the same time and in the same manner as ordinary municipal ad valorem taxes are collected, and shall be subject to the same penalties and the same procedure under foreclosure and sale in case of delinquency." Sec. 12-135(c) mirrors the state carve-out: a redemptioner or state-sale purchaser takes subject to the assessment.

Two provisions cut the other way for an owner. Sec. 12-134(d) preserves the right to self-abate: "any owner, occupant, lessee or person in control of said property shall have the right to have any nuisance removed at his or her own expense providing the removal is done prior to the commencing of the work by the employees or agents of the municipality to do the removal". And Sec. 12-33(a) lets the city elect a personal remedy instead of a lien — "in lieu of assessing costs against the respective property, the city may elect to recover the fees and costs … from the owner of the property through a legal action" — which is a choice the city makes, not an additional exposure stacked on the lien.

One exemption is worth knowing if the holding is land rather than a building. Sec. 12-62 provides that "a lot or premises of more than five acres, including residential subdivisions in which no lots have been sold or occupied, shall be considered farm property and exempt from cutting or mowing the entire property but shall be required to cut and maintain a perimeter area of 100 feet from the property lines of all abutting residential or business properties." On a large undeveloped parcel the duty is a hundred-foot perimeter, not the whole tract.

What This Means for a Montgomery Asset

The exposure profile here is the opposite of a registration city. Nothing accrues for leaving a building empty — no fee, no renewal, no deadline that runs on its own. Then a condemnation finding arrives with a 45-day clock, a 10-day bonded appeal, and an assessment that can be accelerated into a municipal sale. Binary and back-loaded, and the mortgagee-notice mandate in Sec. 11-53B-3(a) is the main reason a lender finds out the clock has started — with the cost-fixing notice under Sec. 11-53B-5, sent to interests found in the tax assessor's records, as the second.

• Do not look for a registration deadline. There is none, and there is nothing to file; the first document in a Montgomery file is usually a notice under the state chapter.
• Keep the mortgage address in the recorded instrument current. Ala. Code Sec. 11-53B-3(a) serves every mortgagee of record at the address set forth in the mortgage, and where the mortgage sets out no address the city determines the correct one. That address is where the statute sends notice first.
• Treat 45 days as a work-plan deadline, not just a repair deadline. Sec. 11-53B-3(b) accepts a work plan filed inside 45 days where the repairs cannot be finished in that window.
• Diary the second hearing. The cost-fixing meeting under Sec. 11-53B-5 is a separate opportunity to object to the amount, noticed to interests found in the tax assessor's records.
• Note the appeal needs a bond. Ten days from the governing body's decision, with security for costs approved by the circuit clerk.
• Check recording dates before assuming the lien bites. A mortgage recorded before the assessment lien arose outranks it under Sec. 11-53B-5; a later one does not.
• Never miss an installment once elected. Sec. 11-53B-8 accelerates the whole lien on a single missed payment and leads to a cash sale on three weeks' notice.
• Scope board-ups to the Sec. 5-71(g)(2) specification. Half-inch CDX or OSB, 1½-inch corrosion-resistant fasteners spaced not more than 12 inches along the perimeter and interior supports, 2x4 interior supports at no more than 24 inches on centre, utilities verified off and an occupancy sweep first.

Alabama's two largest markets are now on genuinely different footings. Birmingham is now authorised to run a registry with escalating fees and an expressly subordinate lien, though the act is permissive and this page has not confirmed that the city has adopted one. Montgomery has no registry, cannot adopt one without new state authority, and recovers its money through an assessment that a prior-recorded mortgage outranks. A portfolio across both cities needs two different playbooks, and the Montgomery one is mostly about reacting fast to a notice rather than tracking a filing calendar.

Ethreon runs vacant property inspections, securing and board-up work across Montgomery. On a Montgomery asset the thing that prevents the whole chain is unglamorous: a building that is secured to the published specification and documented, so it never reaches an unfit-for-habitation finding in the first place.