Local ordinances: administrative fines or penalties.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on consequences if a property owner fails to correct issues within the specified timeframe.

Local Rules: Fines and Penalties

The bill sets rules about fines and penalties local governments can charge for building, plumbing, electrical, or zoning violations that do not pose immediate health or safety risks.

What This Bill Does

• It stops local agencies from charging fines or penalties for certain structural issues unless the property owner has had time to fix them.
• It requires a minimum of six months for owners to correct building, plumbing, electrical, or zoning problems in their homes if they were not responsible for causing the issue and did not know about it when they bought the home.
• If an owner tries hard to fix the problem but needs more time, local agencies can give them another six months to finish fixing it.

Who It Names or Affects

• Local government agencies
• Homeowners who have building, plumbing, electrical, or zoning issues

Terms To Know

Administrative fines or penalties

Money that local governments can charge for breaking certain rules.

Sworn affidavit

A written statement made under oath, which is a serious promise to tell the truth.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if an owner cannot fix the problem within the given time.
• It requires local agencies to make changes to their rules about fines and penalties.
• There are no costs that need to be paid back by the state for this law.

Official Summary Text

SB 1272, as amended, Menjivar.
Local ordinances: administrative fines or penalties.
Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a local agency, as defined, to, by ordinance, make any violation of an ordinance subject to an administrative fine or penalty. Existing law requires a local agency to set forth, by ordinance, the administrative procedures that govern the imposition, enforcement, collection, and administrative review of those administrative fines or penalties.
Existing law requires the administrative procedures to provide for a reasonable period of time, as specified in the ordinance, for a person responsible for a continuing violation to correct or otherwise remedy the violation prior to the imposition of administrative fines or penalties, when the violation pertains to building, plumbing, electrical, or other similar structural or zoning issues, that do not create an immediate danger to health or safety.
This bill would
prohibit the imposition of an administrative fine or penalty as described above
require,
for any violation pertaining to building, plumbing, electrical, or other similar structural or zoning issues, that do not create an immediate danger to health or safety, of any ordinance enacted by the local
agency
agency, the reasonable period of time to correct or otherwise remedy the violation to be no less than 6 months
if certain conditions are met, including that the
property involved in the violation is a residential property that is owner occupied. The bill would make conforming changes to the remedy provision.
current owner of the property submits a sworn affidavit that the current owner was not responsible for any action that caused the violation and that the current owner had no knowledge of the violation at the time the owner took title to the property. By requiring a sworn affidavit, the bill would expand the crime of perjury, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program.
The bill would require a local agency to extend the reasonable period of time described above by an additional 6 months upon a showing by the current owner of a good faith effort to correct or otherwise remedy the violation, and would authorize the agency to extend the reasonable period of time beyond that extension in its discretion, as specified.
The bill would include findings that changes
proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF