La Conchita Home Values Tumble After Slide : Assessor: Dozens of houses have been declared worthless. Property owners file a suit, blaming a farm for the hillside disaster.

Bloom Almeida paid $95,000 for her La Conchita home 10 years ago.

After spending tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours fixing up the house, the Ventura County assessor valued the home at $208,000 four years ago.

Today, four months after tons of dirt and mud turned the tight-knit beach community into a disaster site, the same assessor said the home is without value.

“It’s an immediate relief, we don’t have to pay property tax,” she said. “But it’s a strange situation. We’re paying our mortgage for something somebody says is worthless.”

The assessor’s office recently devalued most of the 195 properties in La Conchita. Dozens have been declared worthless. Still more have been reduced by as much as 15%. Assessor officials said they do not know how much in property tax will be lost this year because of the devaluation.

“We have substantially lowered our values in La Conchita,” Ventura County Assessor Glenn Gray said.

Wednesday, 53 property owners filed suit in Ventura County Superior Court, blaming the farm that owns the hill for the landslide that cut a path of destruction through the seaside community in March.

Almeida said she plans to join her neighbors’ lawsuit this week.

The suit alleges that La Conchita Ranch Co.’s irrigation of its avocado and citrus groves above the town turned the hill into mush. Nine residences were destroyed and dozens more were damaged during the series of mudslides that followed last winter’s heavy rains. More than 100 residents were evacuated after the first slide on March 4.

Because of the slide, the suit alleges, the remaining residences have been severely devalued and impossible to sell. County officials said they are unaware of any home sales since the slide.

“They are doomed,” said Brian Barnwell, an independent assessor in Santa Barbara. “No buyer is going to buy in La Conchita and no lender is going to lend.”

The homeowners’ lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. It also asks that the farm pay to render the hill safe. Geologists say it is still unstable and has a good chance of sliding again.

“We just want the hill fixed,” said Virginia Clark, one of the plaintiffs.

Clark and her husband have owned their Bakersfield Avenue home for 21 years. It is now assessed at zero value.

“We are in our 70s and this was supposed to be our home for the rest of our lives,” Clark said. But because the hill is still unstable, she and her husband live in fear. They would like to sell their home and move away from the threat. Nobody, however, is buying.

“Now we are in limbo,” she said.

But is the farm to blame?

“We don’t have any comment,” company manager David Orr said.

Some residents partly blame Ventura County officials for issuing building permits in La Conchita. John F. (Mickey) McGuire Jr., a San Diego attorney handling the lawsuit, said Ventura County may be added as a defendant.

Ventura County officials have always maintained that the issue is a private matter because it did not involve any public property.

Others, such as Barnwell, chalk up the tragedy to nature.

“I don’t know what anybody can do,” he said.

Regardless of fault, residents agree that La Conchita will never be the same.

“People are divided as what to do and who to blame,” Almeida said of her neighbors. “A lot of people have simply moved out.”

Almeida said the community was further polarized by two law firms competing for the chance to file a lawsuit. McGuire’s firm won.

“We have been so confused by all the debating,” Almeida said, citing the reason she initially put off joining the lawsuit.

Almeida said a bank recently turned her down for a $20,000 home equity loan because loan officers said she had no equity left in her Santa Barbara Avenue.

“Now is the time to jump in,” she said. “I hope the end of this lawsuit means the hill is stabilized.”