Arkansas is the second state in this series with no blighted-property receivership, and its receivership chapter is in worse repair than Oklahoma's. Three sections carry no text but the word [Superseded.]; a whole subchapter has been reduced to an editorial note; and one surviving 1857 provision works by extending a section that no longer exists. But the interesting thing about Arkansas is not the hole where a receivership would be. It is what sits in its place - not a court-appointed rehabilitator, but a priority contest, decided on what the mortgage holder did rather than on how bad the building got, and capped in dollars.
The Receivership Chapter Is an 1857 Fragment
Receivership in Arkansas lives in Title 16, Subtitle 7, Chapter 117. Subchapter 1, headed General Provisions, contains nothing at all in the official free-access edition except an editorial note. In Subchapter 2, Sections 16-117-201, 16-117-202 and 16-117-204 each appear as a bare "[Superseded.]" with no replacement text and no note saying by what. Whatever supplies Arkansas's appointment procedure today, it is not in the chapter named after it.
Seven sections survive, and their histories tell you how old the surviving law is: Section 16-117-203 (actions by receivers and employment of attorneys), Section 16-117-205 (corporations, copartnerships and joint-stock companies), Section 16-117-206 (cases between individuals), Section 16-117-209 (reports and accounts) and Section 16-117-210 (removal) all derive from Acts 1857, p. 164. Section 16-117-207 comes from the Civil Code, Sections 323 and 325 to 327. Only Section 16-117-208 is modern by comparison - Acts 1931, No. 253.
Section 16-117-206 is the one to notice. In full: "The provisions of Sections 16-117-204 and 16-117-205 shall apply to cases between individuals, with like effect, as declared in Sections 16-117-204 and 16-117-205." It is the bridge that carries the receivership provisions from companies across to ordinary people - and half of what it carries is Section 16-117-204, which has no text.
The Preservation Section Contains No Preservation Duty
Section 16-117-208 is captioned "Receiver to preserve mortgaged property," which is the heading anyone searching for an Arkansas receiver's duties will land on. The body never uses the word again. It sets grounds for appointment and nothing else: in an action by a mortgagee for foreclosure and sale, a receiver may be appointed "where it appears that the mortgaged property is in danger of being lost, removed, or materially injured, or that the conditions of the mortgage have not been performed and that the property is probably insufficient to discharge the mortgage debt."
Then a carve-out that could not come from anywhere else. No receiver shall be appointed at the instance of the mortgage holder "where it appears that the debtor or mortgagor has mortgaged his or her crops, or his or her interest therein, for the purpose of obtaining money or supplies for the making of the crop or waived his or her rents for that purpose, and that the mortgage debt or the consideration for the waiver of rents has not been repaid." That is Acts 1931, No. 253 - Depression-era protection for a farmer who pledged the coming crop to finance planting it, and it is still the law on the books.
What an Arkansas Receiver May Do
Section 16-117-207(d) is the powers clause, and it is even thinner than Oklahoma's: "The receiver has, under the control of the court, power to bring and defend actions, to take and keep possession of the property, to receive rents, collect debts, and generally do such acts respecting the property as the court may authorize." Possession, rents, debts, litigation. No repair, no maintenance, no preservation, no insurance. As in Oklahoma, anything spent on the building is authorised by the order, not by the statute.
Two conditions on the office are stricter here than next door. Section 16-117-207(b): "No party or attorney, or person interested in an action, shall be appointed receiver therein." Flat, with no exception - where Oklahoma's 12 O.S. Section 1552 allows exactly that appointment by consent of all parties, Arkansas does not offer the consent route at all. And Section 16-117-207(c) requires the receiver, before entering on the duties, to be sworn and to execute a bond with one or more sureties approved by the court, in such sum as the court directs.
The word preserve does appear in operative text once, in Section 16-117-205(a): on an order placing a company's property in a receiver's hands, the receiver "shall have full possession, custody, and control thereof, and shall be vested with the title, so far as it shall be necessary to collect debts, preserve the assets and property for the benefit of creditors, and all persons interested." Note who it runs to. Preservation there is owed to creditors, it is bounded by what is necessary to collect debts, and on its own terms it applies to a corporation, copartnership or joint-stock company - reaching an individual's house only through the 1857 bridge in Section 16-117-206.
How the money comes back is set by Section 16-117-209. Receivers report every six months or more often if the court requires, and that duty "may be enforced by attachment, sequestration, or other proper and effectual means." They take credit for "all taxes, expenses, attorney's fees, and necessary disbursements, in the execution of their trusts," plus such compensation as the court allows, "to be paid out of the trust fund as part of the costs and expenses." The court passes on the accounts, and confirmation is "conclusive against all persons whatsoever and not subject to be reinvestigated, except for actual fraud." Reimbursement comes out of the fund, in other words - not off a statutory lien on the building, which is what Ohio gives a nuisance receiver. Section 16-117-210 lets the court remove a receiver for failure to discharge any duty or other sufficient cause, on the motion of any person interested "either as party, creditor, or otherwise."
The Demolition Statute Is One Sentence from 1907
Section 14-56-203, in full: "Cities of the first class, cities of the second class, and incorporated towns may order the removal or razing of, or remove or raze, buildings or houses that in the opinion of the city council or town council have become dilapidated, unsightly, unsafe, unsanitary, obnoxious, or detrimental to the public welfare and shall provide by ordinance the manner of removing and making these removals."
That is the entire state-law condemnation power. Acts 1907, No. 352, Section 2, last touched by Acts 2017, No. 303. Six adjectives, a council's opinion, and an instruction to the city to write its own procedure. Arkansas does not set the notice period, the hearing, the appeal window or the cost cap in statute the way Oklahoma does across several pages of Section 22-112. If you need to know how a demolition order works in a particular Arkansas city, the answer is in that city's ordinance, and the statute will not help you.
Arkansas Cities Can Repair - and the Standard Is in the Lien Section
Section 14-56-203 mentions only removal and razing. The repair power turns up somewhere unexpected: the lien-enforcement provision. Section 14-54-904(b)(1)(A) describes a city issuing "an order for the removal, repair to return the structure to compliance with minimum building code standards, or razing of a building or house under the provisions of Section 14-56-203," and provides that where the owner does not comply and the city then "removes, repairs, or razes the building or house, a lien is granted and given against the real property for the cost of the removal, repair, or razing."
So Arkansas does have a municipal repair power, and unlike most of the states in this series it gives that work a defined endpoint - compliance with minimum building code standards, not a judge's view of what is reasonable. Where the city repairs, Section 14-54-904(b)(1)(B) requires it to comply with Section 14-58-303 on competitive bidding for purchases of supplies and materials or for contracts for work or labour. That is the opposite of Oklahoma, where no municipal repair power exists anywhere in the relevant chapter.
Three Kinds of Lien
Section 14-54-903 defines them. A "clean-up lien" is "a lien securing the cost of work undertaken by a town or city to remove, abate, or eliminate a condition in violation of local codes or ordinances." A "court lien" secures fines or penalties imposed by a court against the owner of an unsafe and vacant structure or weed lot for failure to comply with applicable building codes. A "priority clean-up lien" is "a clean-up lien for work undertaken by a city or town on an unsafe and vacant structure or weed lot that is given priority status over other lienholders following notice and hearing."
The two condition categories are defined too. An "unsafe and vacant structure" or "abandoned home or residential property" is either a structure on previously platted and subdivided property that is not fit for human habitation and has been declared unsafe and vacant by the city in violation of an applicable ordinance, or a home or residential property that is unoccupied, in violation of a city safety standard, and located in an area eligible for federal funds under Section 14-54-905. A "weed lot" is a previously platted and subdivided lot, vacant or carrying an unsafe and vacant structure, "that contains debris, rubbish, or grass which is higher than that permitted by local ordinance" - the height is the city's number, not the state's.
The underlying power is older and broader than either category. Section 14-54-901, from Acts 1943, No. 100, empowers incorporated towns and cities of the first and second class to order owners to cut weeds; to remove garbage, rubbish "and other unsightly and unsanitary articles and things"; and to eliminate, fill up or remove stagnant pools of water "or any other unsanitary thing, place, or condition which might become a breeding place for mosquitoes, flies, and germs harmful to the health of the community" - once the city has provided for it by ordinance. Section 14-54-903(b) then gives the owner or lienholder seven days' written notice, after which "the town or city may do whatever is necessary to correct the condition and to charge the cost thereof to the owner."
A plain clean-up lien covers costs including all administrative and collection costs, and must be filed with the circuit clerk no later than 120 days after the city completes the work. The city may perfect it against the property only where the property contains an unsafe and vacant structure or has been cited as a weed lot. A court lien is weaker by design: Section 14-54-903(c)(5)(B) states that it "does not have first priority status over prior recorded liens and may be imposed in addition to clean-up liens."
The Priority Contest Turns on What the Lienholder Did
This is the part of Arkansas law a servicer actually needs, and it has no equivalent in the other six states. To secure a priority clean-up lien, a city must give seven business days' notice to lienholders before undertaking any work at the property, sent to the lienholder's address shown in the relevant land records. Cities are not required to notify holders of unrecorded liens or unrecorded assignees of lienholders. Any lienholder receiving that notice "shall send, within seven (7) business days from receipt of the notice, a written response to the city or town indicating whether the owner of the property is in default under the terms of the note or mortgage."
Notices go by regular mail and by certified mail, return receipt requested, and notice to an owner is sufficient if sent to the address of record with the county treasurer, collector or assessor. They may be issued by a police officer, the city or town attorney, or a code enforcement officer. After the work, a second notice goes to the owner with the total amount, and - where priority is sought - to the lienholders of record as well.
The amount is then fixed at a public hearing before the governing body, held after thirty days' written notice by mail, return receipt requested, to the owner if the name and address are known and to the lienholders of record. Where the owner cannot be determined, the hearing follows publication once a week for four consecutive weeks in a newspaper of bona fide circulation in the county. The determination is appealable by the owner or any lienholder of record to circuit court within forty-five days; miss that, and "the lien amount is fully perfected and not subject to further contest or appeal." The city files within sixty days of confirmation, or within sixty days of winning on appeal.
Priority itself is a separate proceeding and is never automatic. Under Section 14-54-903(j)(1) the city must file an action in the circuit court for the county seeking a declaration that the clean-up lien is entitled to priority over previously recorded liens, naming the holders of those liens as defendants. And subsection (j)(2) states the test: priority "shall be awarded to the priority clean-up lien with respect to any previously recorded lien if the court determines that such lienholder has failed to exercise its rights to foreclose its lien when the obligation it secures becomes in default or has failed to pay the costs of work undertaken by a city or town that composes the clean-up lien."
Read that twice if you hold the paper. The condition of the building is not the test. The test is whether you sat on a defaulted loan, or declined to pay for work the city ended up doing. Both are things within a servicer's control, and both are curable before the hearing.
Even then, priority is bounded. The amount as to which the clean-up lien takes priority is "the amount the court finds reasonable" and is limited by category:
| Work | Maximum amount that can take priority |
|---|---|
| Grass or weed cutting | $1,000 |
| Board and secure the property | $5,000 |
| Demolish any structures on the property | $7,500 |
| Environmental remediation | $15,000 |
Enforcement, Land Banks, and the Ten-Year Window
Section 14-54-904(a) gives the city ten years from filing to enforce, by either of two routes. The first is "an action for foreclosure in the circuit court by the city or town, or if the city or town has established a land bank, by a land bank that has been assigned the lien" - Arkansas contemplates assigning these liens to a land bank, which is a disposition route the Oklahoma sections do not have.
The second route is tax-roll collection. The amount determined at the hearing, plus a ten percent penalty for collection, is certified by the governing body to the county tax collector, placed on the tax books as delinquent taxes and collected accordingly; the collector remits the amount less three percent to the municipality. And Section 14-54-904(c) adds a cost-shifting rule that is easy to overlook: "In all suits brought to enforce the liens described in this section, the reimbursement of costs, including title search fees and reasonable attorney's fees, shall be awarded to the municipality."
Where the owner is unknown, untraceable or a nonresident, Section 14-54-902 governs: the written notice is posted on the premises, the municipal recorder or city clerk makes an affidavit setting out the facts, publication service against nonresident defendants may be had, and an attorney ad litem is appointed to notify the defendant by certified letter to the last known residence if one can be found.
What This Means If You Hold the Paper
- Nobody is going to be appointed over the building - in Arkansas the live question is not who holds it, but whose lien is in front
- A seven-business-day notice to a recorded lienholder is the trigger for everything that follows; an address that is stale in the land records is an address that gets no warning
- The response the statute asks for is narrow - whether the owner is in default - and it is due within seven business days of receipt
- Not foreclosing on a defaulted loan is itself a ground for subordination under Section 14-54-903(j)(2); so is declining to pay for work the city then performs
- Priority is capped: $1,000 for mowing, $5,000 for a board-up, $7,500 for a demolition, $15,000 for environmental remediation - everything above the cap keeps its place
- Forty-five days to appeal the confirmed amount, after which it is "fully perfected and not subject to further contest or appeal"
- Unrecorded liens and unrecorded assignments of liens are entitled to no notice at all
- The demolition procedure itself is in the city ordinance, not the statute - Section 14-56-203 delegates it wholesale
For the states that do put a derelict building into someone else's hands, see the Ohio R.C. 3767.41 receiver and its first lien, the two Texas nuisance receiverships, Louisiana's consent-based blighted housing receivership and Pennsylvania's Act 135 conservatorship. For the two that do not, compare Alabama, where the municipal lien sits behind the mortgage by statute, and Oklahoma, where it outranks the mortgage automatically - Arkansas sits between them, with priority available but only by court order and only up to a cap. On the fiduciary side, an Arkansas personal representative's duty runs through a permissive repair power while a guardian must take possession of the ward's real property. Field capability is on our Arkansas page.
Ethreon works vacant and unsafe structures across Arkansas — Little Rock, Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Jonesboro and the counties between — for municipalities running clean-up and razing programmes and for the servicers and lienholders who would rather answer a seven-day notice with completed work than argue about priority afterwards. Mowing, board-ups and secure-and-maintain scoped against the local ordinance, costed and evidenced line by line. Send the address and the notice you are holding through the contact form.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1Can a court appoint a receiver over a blighted building in Arkansas?
Not on the strength of the building's condition. Arkansas's receivership chapter is Title 16, Chapter 117, and nothing in it reaches blight. A table-of-contents search of the whole Arkansas Code turns up no section heading pairing "receiver" with property condition, and no section at all contains both "receiver" and "dilapidated" or both "receiver" and "blighted." The ten headings that do use the word concern a city surrendering its charter, water and sewer revenue bonds, and improvement district bonds.
2What does the section called "Receiver to preserve mortgaged property" actually say?
Nothing about preservation. Section 16-117-208 sets grounds for appointment only: in a mortgagee's foreclosure action, a receiver may be appointed where the mortgaged property "is in danger of being lost, removed, or materially injured, or that the conditions of the mortgage have not been performed and that the property is probably insufficient to discharge the mortgage debt." The caption is an editorial heading. The duty a servicer might expect to find under it is not in the text.
3Can an Arkansas city repair a building rather than demolish it?
Yes, and the standard is written down. Section 14-54-904(b)(1)(A) contemplates a city order for "the removal, repair to return the structure to compliance with minimum building code standards, or razing" of a building under Section 14-56-203, and gives the city a lien for the cost if the owner does not comply and the city then does the work. Where the city repairs, Section 14-54-904(b)(1)(B) requires it to follow the competitive bidding rules in Section 14-58-303 for supplies, materials and labour.
4How can a city's lien get ahead of a recorded mortgage in Arkansas?
By court declaration, and only on the lienholder's own conduct. Under Section 14-54-903(j)(1) the city must file an action in circuit court seeking a declaration that its clean-up lien takes priority, naming the recorded lienholders as defendants. Subsection (j)(2) awards priority where the court determines the lienholder "has failed to exercise its rights to foreclose its lien when the obligation it secures becomes in default or has failed to pay the costs of work undertaken by a city or town." Priority is never automatic in Arkansas the way it is in Oklahoma.
5How much of a clean-up lien can take priority?
The amount the court finds reasonable, capped by category: no more than $1,000 for grass or weed cutting, $5,000 to board and secure the property, $7,500 to demolish any structures, and $15,000 for environmental remediation (Section 14-54-903(j)(2)(A)–(D)). Anything above the cap stays behind the recorded mortgage. These figures come from Acts 2017, No. 495.
6What notice does a mortgage holder get before the work?
Seven business days, if the city wants priority. Section 14-54-903(c)(7)(A) requires seven business days' notice to lienholders before any work is undertaken where a priority clean-up lien is sought, sent to the lienholder's address shown in the relevant land records. Subparagraph (D) then asks the lienholder to respond in writing within seven business days stating whether the owner is in default. Holders of unrecorded liens, and unrecorded assignees of lienholders, get no notice at all.
7How long does a city have to file and enforce the lien?
Several clocks run at once. The clean-up lien must be filed with the circuit clerk no later than 120 days after the clean-up work is completed (Section 14-54-903(c)(2)). The amount is confirmed at a public hearing on 30 days' notice, and an owner or lienholder has 45 days to appeal to circuit court, after which the amount is "fully perfected and not subject to further contest or appeal" (subsection (h)). The lien is then filed within 60 days of confirmation, or of the city winning on appeal (subsection (i)), and may be enforced within ten years (Section 14-54-904(a)).