Culver City : Amnesty Rules Clarified

The City Council adopted two policies this week aimed at clarifying the city’s amnesty program for zoning and building code violators. The clarifications involve situations when the property is in escrow or when the property owner has died.

Under the amnesty program, property owners with illegal structures, room additions and garage conversions had 90 days, from Aug. 15 until Nov. 13, to report the violations. Owners who reported the violations were then exempt from fines and penalties and were not required to correct the violations until the property is sold and the title transferred.

The council determined that a buyer who applied for amnesty while the property was in escrow should be exempt from fines and penalties, since that person was not responsible for the violations. But because the buyer would presumably have been informed of the violations in the course of the transaction, the council decided to require that the building be promptly brought up to code.

In the case of a property owner who applied for amnesty, but then dies, the council determined that the title be regarded as passing to the estate on the day of the owner’s death. A city staff report recommended that the council take this action so that the executor of the estate would be forced to correct violations before the property could be sold or distributed to an heir or beneficiary of the will.