Safeguard Properties recently visited with the City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety to discuss the city's requirements and expectations for the maintenance of vacant and abandoned properties in LA.

We were taken on an illuminating tour of some of the more blighted regions in the city.  Several of the properties we visited were properly secured to the city's specifications, but many others were inadequately secured or completely neglected.  Some neighborhoods showed signs of serious decline and many abandoned houses, while in some other communities, a single vacant property negatively affected a whole street of otherwise occupied and well-maintained homes. 

A central theme throughout the day was communication, which is a theme in most of our visits with code enforcement divisions.  If servicers are in regular contact with code enforcement departments, this open communication will speed efforts to correct dangerous or unacceptable conditions at vacant properties.  If there is no communication between the code enforcement departments and servicers, opportunities to protect abandoned properties, and by extension the communities they're located in, may be lost.

The city also prepared a PowerPoint presentation highlighting some of their primary concerns about the hazards and nuisances that abandoned and unsecure properties pose.  We have converted that PowerPoint file to a PDF for easy viewing.  If you are interested in reviewing the presentation, please click on the following link:

 City PowerPoint Presentation.pdf

You may also wish to review the Los Angeles Vacant Building Ordinance (Section 98.0701 et seq. of the Los Angeles Municipal Code), available here in PDF format:

 Los Angeles Vacant Building Ordinance.pdf