COUNTYWIDE : Homes to Be Sold as Seized Drug Assets

The county can auction two houses seized after their owners were charged with selling drugs, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday.

In taking the action, however, the supervisors decided that a minimum bid suggested by county staff for one of the houses was about $20,000 too low.

The supervisors decided to accept a minimum bid of $60,000 for a 608-square-foot house with two bedrooms and one bathroom in Santa Paula.

They also decided to accept a minimum bid of $160,000 for a 1,596-square-foot house with five bedrooms, two bathrooms and a pool in Simi Valley. The county staff had suggested a minimum bid of $140,000, but Supervisor Vicky Howard, a former real estate agent in Simi Valley, said the bid was too low.

She said that houses in that area are worth thousands of dollars more.

The auction of the two houses on July 30 will be the first such sales in the county this year. Last year, the county seized nine houses, under a law allowing assets of drug dealers to be confiscated and sold by authorities.

Profits from the sales will be split, with 10% going to the state, 13.5% to the district attorney’s office and the remainder to the Ventura and Santa Paula police departments, the two agencies involved in arresting the property owners, officials said.