Blog

By Neil Sheaffer

A Health and Safety Receivership is a legal remedy to combat neighborhood blight and transform problematic properties back into safe and habitable structures. A house or building within a community may be deteriorating due to various reasons ranging from severe hoarding, contaminated or unsafe living environments, or owner abandonment. Deteriorating properties are usually produced because no responsible party is willing or able to address the problems on the property. Whether due to an uncooperative property owner, quarreling heirs, disputes regarding title, or an owner that cannot be located, the structure or dwelling is poorly maintained making it an eyesore and hazard to the community. When a property is in severe disrepair and a danger to its tenants or neighboring residents, the property will affect the entire neighborhood.

Health and Safety Receivership actions often deal with homeowners who are packrats/hoarders, elderly, or mentally/physically disabled. These types of homeowners may not be able to properly maintain and care for their house, which leads to loss of control of the property and the commencing of a receivership action. A Court-Appointed Health and Safety Receiver is temporarily appointed by the court to address the health and safety concerns of substandard properties that have been neglected by property owners. A Health and Safety Receivership can successfully rehabilitate distressed properties when the homeowner is unwilling or unable to remedy code violations themselves.

Substandard motels are present in cities across the state California. We have all stayed in a motel where we wished we had read the Yelp reviews first, right? Usually property owners of these substandard commercial properties neglect the basic maintenance needs of the property to save money which, in turn, causes the property to fall into severe disrepair. In these situations, a Court-Appointed Health and Safety Receiver can step in to provide the solution to protect the community and occupants from such dangerous conditions. A Receiver can be appointed by the court to rehabilitate and preserve substandard commercial properties.

Hoarding is a serious clinical disorder where an individual has obstinate difficulty discarding or parting with belongings. A person with a hoarding disorder experiences distress at the idea of getting rid of their possessions because they have an inherent need to save them. This mentality results in excessive accrual of belongings regardless of actual value. Hoarding behaviors can produce an unsafe environment posing a health and safety risk to the people living in the home. A Court-Appointed Health & Safety Receiver can remedy the effects of extreme hoarding at residential properties. The court can appoint a neutral third-party receiver to take control of the property to remedy the challenging hoarding conditions.