BAT a city sponsored scam in Toledo OH

[Bobby Narinov]

I own an out of state SFR property that is managed by Flex Realty Property Management in Toledo OH.

I just received a fine from BAT (Beautification Action Team) stating that I failed to abate something.

I am not sure what but I owe them $470.00 for 1.58BAT units whatever that one is. That is $300.00 per BAT unit mind you. I cannot even understand for what are they charging me for nor what I was supposed to fix. To quote them verbatim: "As an owner on record at the time of service of the referenced address, you failed to abate a nuisance at the stated address."

The notice comes with 0.5% monthly interest and the following threat: "Failure to pay will result in the cost becoming a tax lien against the property or a personal debt turned over to a collection agency."  

I tried calling them and left multiple messages but no one returned my call.

The only thing I understood from this letter is that they inspected the site on Aug 20, 2015 and on the very next day (August 21, 2015) at 11:15 am BAT performed something. I was not informed about the problem but even if I was one cannot possibly expect to take an action with less than 24 hrs. notice.

I am not sure how this city operates but here in California we were given notice and then we were given 10-15 days to fix the problem (some of that time is eaten by the USPS to deliver the mail).

I understand that the city has laws to protect it's citizens from bad landlords/neighbors and fines need to be levied on people that do not care to maintain their properties but at least tell me what I should be paying you for. Take a picture, explain what the problem was so it will be avoided in the future. You cannot go around the city and charge people for service they have not ordered. "Here I replaced the tires on your car. That would be $2,000.00. You should be grateful for me doing that. Now pay up or we are going to send the bill to a collection agency. What? you didn't know you had a problem? We knew about it. We learned about it 12 hours ago. You should have read our minds and fix it before we came back to do it for you. Look how much more beautiful your car is now. Isn't it great. Welcome to the beautiful city of Toledo where we take a good care of each other." 

Is this a new way for the city to steal from the homeowners so they can line up the pockets of the city councils and the mayor? If it is, I don't really like it.

Am I been targeted because I am out of state owner and usually no one gives a frack about it? Are there any other out of state owners receiving similar invoices?