KANE'OHE — The city has placed liens on dozens of properties and a handful of them could face foreclosure as part of a stepped-up enforcement of zoning violations.

The city has sent about 35 of its worst cases to the Bureau of Conveyances, which is recording the liens, said Mike Friedel, the city's code compliance chief. These owners will receive letters notifying them once the liens are recorded, Friedel said, adding that he expects that to be by the end of the month or early next year.

"On the heels of that, we're going to take a couple of the more egregious ones and we're going to hire an outside attorney to foreclose on the liens," he said.

Friedel did not release the names of the people whose properties are affected, but said they were taken from an initial list of about 60 of the city's worst zoning code violators, who have been warned about the possibility of liens. Since June, many of these have rectified their violations and brought their properties into compliance, he said.

"The purpose of doing the lien is in fact working," he said. "When people find out they're in danger of having their property liened, they somehow or other refocus their attention to get the matter resolved to prevent that from happening."

That was the case with Randy Mousser, a retired city employee, who said he fixed the violation at his Lualualei property after getting a letter saying he could lose his home.

But Mousser was not happy with having to fix a problem that dates back more than 30 years ago, before he even moved to the property. He thought a fence that was in violation should have been grandfathered in, which allows for nonconformity in cases in which a structure is in place before rules were set.

Mousser said fines in his case had ballooned to more than $33,000, but the city cut it to $3,350 and is letting him pay over several months. Still, he said he can't understand a system that let the violation ride for 30 years.

"I work hard to get that place and now I'm paying fines for something I never did build," Mousser said.

The city's effort is to go after violations that have persisted for years, in some cases tallying fines of $250,000, and up to $1 million.

The problems include construction and grading conducted without proper permits, failure to cut overgrown vegetation on vacant land and illegal use of property. Examples of these are cases in Waimanalo, where agricultural lots are used as base yards, and in Kailua, where some homes are used as illegal vacation rentals.

Foreclosures are a new option for the city to deal with these zoning violations. Previously, the city could attach fines to property taxes, driver's license renewals, building permits and vehicular registrations. This year, the Legislature ended those avenues, but instead allowed the city to place liens on properties.

In the city's new budget, the City Council provided funding to implement foreclosures, Friedel said.

"We started off with 60 but it's whittled down," he said. "You'd be surprised how many corrected (the violations) once they know they were on the hot seat."

He said he has a drawer full of cases and he'll be taking 10 at a time and sending them over to the Bureau of Conveyances.

"They're not as egregious so we're not even considering foreclosing on them at this point," he said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.