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Richardson "Red" Griswold was appointed as a health and safety Receiver by the San Diego County Superior Court in April 2016 to take control of a hoarder property in San Diego (Mira Mesa). Under his receivership, Red was responsible for coordinating the clear-out and rehabilitation of the dwelling. The property was in such disarray, the debris overflow could be viewed on Google Street View as well as from satellite images. Click below to view the recent news stories about this situation regarding the property, its condition, receivership status and the neighborhood history:

Griswold Law, along with co-counsel JCL Law Firm, recently achieved a class action settlement on behalf of a class of San Diego County individuals that suffered illegal treatment as motel/apartment occupants. The class members were subject to a variation of the "28-day shuffle" policy, unlawfully utilized by some motels/apartments in California. As a part of the court-approved class action settlement, we were honored to present a $75,881.50 "cy pres" donation to Alpha Project in San Diego. We presented the check to Alpha Project at the grand opening ceremony of their beautiful new project (Alpha Square) in downtown San Diego on November 18, 2015. The building will provide 203 brand-new units for the homeless population in San Diego!!

As I have written about consistently in this blog (and experienced on a daily basis in my role as a health and safety receiver), hoarding is a serious problem that affects people, neighborhoods and properties. And unfortunately, the hoarding disorder is typically under-served and misunderstood.

Co-ownership of real property sounds like a great idea. That is, until co-owners disagree. Generally, real property is considered "unique." What is meant by that is that real property is not something that can simply split in half when two co-owners disagree and want to liquidate a contested asset. In most partition actions, the remedy sought is the appointment of a partition referee, whose primary function is to sell the jointly-owned property and then distribute the proceeds with court approval.

A focus of my practice is dedicated to receivership matters. I am routinely appointed by California courts as a receiver. Specifically, I have acted as a health & safety code receiver, a rents & profits receiver, a post-judgment receiver and a partition referee. On August 26, 2014, I moderated and participated in a speaker panel at the San Diego County Bar Center presented by the San Diego Chapter of the California Receiver Forum. We were fortunate to have the Honorable Eddie C. Sturgeon speak on the panel.

Many times, a property under the control of a health and safety code receiver is occupied by tenants. The substandard condition of the property may not be the fault of the property tenants. This situation commonly arises when the property owner/landlord is non-responsive and failing to maintain the property in a safe and habitable condition. Health and safety receiverships arise often in the context of rental properties (single-family homes or apartment buildings).