Community Improvement team help transform house

A residential property in Costa Mesa had an extensive code enforcement and police calls for service history and had become a neighborhood nuisance.

The city’s Community Improvement Division used a health and safety receivership approach, and now the property meets city standards and has improved the surrounding neighborhood.

Code Enforcement uses several methods and tools to gain compliance. One method Code Enforcement may use is a Health and Safety receivership. This tool is a legal process through which the title to a piece of real property is temporarily taken from the owner and placed with a court-appointed officer, receiver. Actions taken by the court appointed receiver are as followed but not limited to:

• Taking full and complete control of the property
• Obtaining cost estimates for necessary repairs/rehabilitation
• Managing and paying expenses of operating the substandard building
• Entering into contracts with contractors to perform necessary repairs
• Collecting rents and income from substandard building and using such rents to pay for repairs
• Borrowing funds to pay for repairs and much more

The receivership method is used for cases where severe substandard conditions exist at a property and where the owner has a history of noncompliance with a local enforcement agency’s orders to abate.

Other situations a receivership may be used are when emergency circumstances are discovered by staff that may pose an immediate threat to health and safety of the community.

For more information visit the Community Improvement Division webpage here.