City Targets Problematic Rental Parcels

The city of Oxnard is working to help owners of rental real estate correct problems on their property, from graffiti to excess trash to poor landscaping.

“Most of it is just lack of maintenance,” said Oxnard Police Sgt. Bryan MacDonald, who runs the code-enforcement portion of the new Rental Property Improvement Program. He said most of the solutions are simple.

Traditionally, code enforcement officers respond to complaints about residential or business properties and work with owners to fix the problems. But the new program, using the same methods, will search for violations at apartment complexes and other rental properties, of which Oxnard has about 2,000.

“We’re the meat and potatoes of the program,” MacDonald said.

The program uses workers from city departments, including building inspection, code enforcement, police, parks, public works and refuse inspection.

In September, officers began periodic patrols of neighborhoods to inspect rentals, sometimes along with the property owners. When they find a problem, such as an abandoned vehicle or buildings stained by leaky pipes, they give the owner time to correct it, depending on severity.

“It depends on the violation,” said Michelle Montez, the deputy city attorney who serves as chairwoman of the program. “It’s going to be reasonable, but they’re going to have to be on the ball.”

Improvements don’t have to be difficult or expensive, Montez said. For instance, overflowing trash bins are unsightly and can attract sea gulls and vermin. But scheduling an additional trash pickup each month could easily solve the problem and make the entire neighborhood look better, she said.

In other cases, renters or owners might have made significant changes to the property without acquiring the proper city building permits or inspections to ensure safety.

Larry McGrath, a senior code enforcement officer, said problems could be minor, such as a wobbly railing or damaged stairs, but in extreme cases, “they have turned storage rooms into rental units,” requiring extensive inspections.

“I’m taking a look all the way from ground level to the roof,” he said.

Inspectors provide owners with lists of things to correct throughout a property, thereby avoiding identifying a single renter who might be a whistle-blower, McGrath said.

The responses from rental property owners to the program have varied, he said.

“We’ve had everything from full cooperation to indifference,” he said.

But once a run-down building gets a fresh coat of paint or a mowed lawn, other owners take notice and, if they follow suit, property values rise, MacDonald said.

“There’s going to be a little bit of cost involved,” he said, but “it’s an investment in their future.”

One property manager found himself among the first affected by the new program.

“I don’t mind making any repairs that they ask,” said Henry Velasquez, who manages 75 rental units for Advance Realestate Property Management.

The city asked Advance to paint a few buildings and repair some potholes, items already on the company’s to-do list, Velasquez said. But the inspectors did not allow much time to correct the problems, he said.

“The time frame, in my opinion, was a really short fuse,” he said. “Things don’t break in one day, so you can’t fix them all in one day.”

Velasquez said he wishes the city would provide more information to rental property owners about the program. He also questions the legality of officers searching for violations.

“They’re inciting situations instead of responding to” complaints, Velasquez said.

The program was created after some residents complained about a lack of maintenance at rental properties, Montez said.

“There were complaints from citizens, then the City Council started talking about it,” she said.

Sometimes renters complained about the owners, while other times owners of a well-kept rental property complained about a nearby property that made their neighborhood look bad.

MacDonald said he was surprised to learn that rental buildings with the most problems are not clustered in certain parts of the city. Rental properties that don’t comply with city codes are found even in the most upscale neighborhoods, he said.

“This is something that’s not isolated to one section of Oxnard,” MacDonald said. “It’s all around town.”

Rents in Oxnard, which has a vacancy rate of less than one-half of 1%, can range from $600 a month for a studio apartment to almost $1,300 a month for a two-bedroom unit, said Larry White, a management analyst in the city’s Housing Department. Rental houses near the beach can run as much as $3,000 a month, he said.

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To report an Oxnard rental property in need of inspection, contact Michelle Montez at 385-7483.