Two properties in the City of Warren have been deemed blighted by the city’s Blighted Property Review Committee.

The declarations were passed against 418 Hazel St. and 202 N. Irvine St. during a Thursday meeting.

Scott Taylor, the city’s zoning official, said that the Hazel Street property came into the city’s view in response to a complaint from a neighbor. He told the committee that the owner of record is deceased.

“Were running into this more and more,” he said, where property issues are complicated by deceased owners.

Taylor said he has been in contact with a responsible party but that, after three months “or so with no progress it was time to move it in front of the committee.”

He said it “doesn’t look that it’s all that terrible on the outside” but noted that the “front roof is fairly rotted out underneath.”

For the Irvine Street property, Taylor said the property has been vacant for five years. He explained that the owner on the deed had legal action against him and had to vacate the property while the bank that took control walked away because of the property’s value.

Taylor said there are unpaid tax bills and liens against the property and the owner “doesn’t even know if he’s legally permitted to sell it. … To an extent, it does not stop our process.”

“(We have) no choice but to move it forward,” Committee Denise Whipp said.

Director of Codes and Planning Randy Rossey said the property is up for the May judicial sale which will “take care of the liens and stuff. That’s our real purpose of getting it before the committee” so that if someone buys the property they will “be aware that there are major issues that need to be rectified.”