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Health and Safety Receiverships are a remedy for distressed properties, which are known as a public nuisance under the law. In a receivership, a receiver is appointed by the court to revitalize nuisance properties after a lawsuit has been filed against the property owner. In these situations under public nuisance law, the receiver will often work with local law enforcement and fire departments until the situation is resolved.

A successful health & safety receivership restores order to a long-neglected residential property. After years of unresolved code violations and deteriorating conditions, a single family home in Fresno is now secure, cleaned out, and poised for sale—thanks to the use of a health and safety receivership.

While there is no specific health and safety receivership statute in Arizona, courts have shown flexibility in using existing receivership laws to protect public safety.

In August 2023, the City of Citrus Heights filed a petition in Sacramento County Superior Court to appoint a receiver for a severely substandard single-family home. This case highlights how cities across California, Arizona, Nevada, and beyond can use Health & Safety Receiverships to address dangerous, abandoned, or uninhabitable properties that threaten public health and neighborhood stability.

Debt collection might seem straightforward—until a debtor fails to pay a court-ordered judgment. In many cases, creditors are left with few options when traditional methods of recovery don’t work. This is when a judgment enforcement receiver becomes essential. Appointed by the court, this individual is tasked with overseeing the collection process, ensuring that creditors get what they are owed, and tackling the obstacles that stand in the way of debt recovery. When a debtor refuses to comply with a judgment, a court-appointed receiver can mean the difference between success and continued frustration.

It’s one thing to know that court-appointed receivers are an important resource that the courts can use to address abandoned, blighted, and dangerous properties in the community. It’s another to understand how that happens.