Health and Safety Receivership Gets Over Two Decades of Languishing Construction Completed

What was intended to be an elegant home, sat as an unfinished construction site for over two decades. Work that had been started in the 1990s was nowhere near completion in 2018 when we arrived onsite following our appointment by the Superior Court. Significant problems included the unsafe storage of building materials, with some stacks over five feet in height, visible from the exterior and stacked against a neighboring property. Alarmingly, inside the house, overhead open beams were used to store large building materials. Further problems were the unfinished electrical work and an unfinished staircase, which was in use, as well as numerous exposed door frames, and visible signs of water damage across the two stories due to a leak.

Little Value, but a Big Community Issue: Remediating a Blighted, Low-value Motel and Family Home

When the street on which this property is located saw dwindling visitors following the construction of Interstate 5, many businesses in the area closed their doors, abandoning the buildings that housed them. With a building use that has low demand, a property can devolve into nuisance conditions, as happened in this case. See how CRG is making changes through health and safety receivership.

A Blighted Property is Unrecognizable After a Health and Safety Receivership

Fire damaged, structurally unsound and at risk of collapsing, this property was in very poor condition when we were appointed as the Receiver and it was dangerous to be onsite. The structure was full of trash, infested with pests, lacking electricity, heating, and running water. We have been able to completely remodel the structure and abate the numerous violations of municipal and state health and safety codes on the property.

CRG Works to Determine the Abatement Strategy for a Neighborhood Nuisance

With structural deficiencies including holes in the floors, walls, and ceilings, this building was dangerous to enter. Yet, broken windows, overgrown landscaping, and an accumulation of junk and debris visible from the street made it an attractive nuisance and it was continuously broken into, adding further problems for people living in the surrounding community. After seven years of code enforcement attempts to get the owner to address the conditions were unsuccessful, CRG was appointed by the superior court to takeover the property and create an abatement plan.

A Deserted Property Gets a New Lease of Life

After the owner of this single-family home sadly passed away, leaving no will and no apparent heirs, the building began to decay. A series of break-ins occurred and those squatting inside the property hastened its degradation. The vacant home became a nuisance to the surrounding community, and the dangerous volume of trash and debris littered throughout the interior and exterior of the home presented a fire hazard as well as an eyesore. As there was little equity in the property, we needed to find an economical approach to rectify the state and municipal health and safety code violations onsite.

Fire Damaged and Collapsing: Rescuing a Ruined Property

Over fifteen years of municipal code enforcement efforts yielded no results in gaining the owner’s compliance to remedy the issues afflicting this nuisance property in Alameda County. In fact, conditions only worsened as the home became the subject of a fire and multiple break-ins. Each time the house was broken into, it was the City who had to expend precious municipal resources to board up and secure the home. The fire made the property more dangerous and increased the likelihood that the structure would collapse. Nevertheless, transients continued to squat inside the house and it became a major source of crime and blight in the neighborhood. Through a health and safety receivership, the dangerous issues on-site were abated and the future of the property secured.