Eastvale Municipal Code Art. III Recordation

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of the Eastvale Municipal Code to the contrary, if the city determines that any property, building or structure, or any part thereof, is in violation of any provision of the Eastvale Municipal Code and said violation has not been fully abated or corrected, as determined by the city, in the manner and time provided in any written notice to a responsible person, then the city, in its sole discretion, may record a declaration of substandard property with the Riverside County Recorder's Office against said premises. As used herein, the term "fully abated or corrected" includes the procurement of all required city approvals, permits, licenses and the passage of all city-required inspections.

(b) A declaration of substandard property shall not be recorded unless the city has first issued a written notice (in any form) to the owner of real property (i) identifying and requiring correction of a public nuisance condition, and (ii) disclosing that a declaration of substandard property may be recorded against the real property if the public nuisance conditions are not fully abated or corrected in the manner and time delineated in said notice, as determined by the city.

(1) If the notice required pursuant to this paragraph (b) was comprised of a notice of abatement as defined in this chapter or of an administrative citation issued pursuant to chapter 8.17 of this Code, a declaration of substandard property shall not be recorded unless the notice of abatement and/or administrative citation is deemed a final and binding city decision.

(c) The form that constitutes a declaration of substandard property shall be approved by the city attorney or the city prosecutor.

(d) The city shall record a notice of rescission of declaration of substandard property with the Riverside County Recorder's Office within ten business days of its determination that a violation or a public nuisance has been fully abated or corrected.

(e) The city shall cause copies of recorded declarations of substandard property and notices of rescission of declaration of substandard property to be served on all persons having an ownership interest in the subject real property as shown in the last equalized assessment roll of the Riverside County Assessor's Office. Service thereof shall be by first class mail. Failure of any person to receive such notices shall not invalidate any action or proceeding pursuant to this chapter.

(Ord. No. 2020-01, § 2(Exh. B), 2-26-2020)

(a) Pursuant to Government Code § 54988 and Health and Safety Code § 17951 (and any successor statute thereto), the Eastvale Building Code, and any other applicable local, state, or federal law, as well as by the city's police powers as authorized by the California Constitution, the city may charge and collect code enforcement fees from responsible persons who cause, allow, permit, suffer, or maintain a violation in or upon any real property located within the city to defray the city's costs of code enforcement actions. Such fees shall not exceed the amount reasonably required to achieve this objective and are chargeable whether the city's code enforcement actions occur in the absence of formal administrative or judicial proceedings, as well as prior to, during, or subsequent to, the initiation of such proceedings.

The fees imposed pursuant to this section shall be in addition to any other fees or charges that responsible persons may owe in accordance with any other provision of the this Code, or which are imposed pursuant to County, State or Federal laws or regulations.

(b) The city shall keep an accounting of the code enforcement fees and shall serve a statement of code enforcement fees upon the responsible persons. The issuance, service, and contest of a statement of code enforcement fees and the payment and collection of code enforcement fees shall be made in the same manner and in the same time frames as for the issuance, service, and contest of a statement of abatement costs and for the payment and collection of abatement costs as set forth in sections 8.18.200 through 8.18.230.

(c) The city manager, or a designee thereof, is authorized to establish regulations for the uniform imposition of code enforcement fees and for related administrative actions pertaining to such fees.

(d) Code enforcement fees shall also be recoverable in conjunction with any action, administrative proceeding, judicial proceeding, or special proceeding to cause the abatement or cessation of, or otherwise to remove a violation or a public nuisance, and is not limited to those proceedings wherein city personnel perform the necessary abatement actions.

(e) Failure to pay code enforcement fees shall constitute a debt that is collectible in any manner allowed by law, including, but not limited to, the recordation of a lien with the county recorder's office and/or with the California Franchise Tax Board Inter-Agency Offset Program (pursuant to Government Code § 12419.10). The city may also withhold or deny the issuance or renewal of any city license, permit, or other entitlement for any property or business, or condition the final approval of any license, permit, or other entitlement upon payment of code enforcement fees, when code enforcement fees imposed upon the applicant pursuant to this section as a result of a code violation at said property or business remain unpaid.

(1) In every instance where an owner or other responsible person is required to obtain a permit, approval, license or entitlement under any provision of the Eastvale Municipal Code in connection with the abatement of a violation, the city may condition the issuance of said permit, approval, license or entitlement on the prior payment of all outstanding code enforcement fees.

(g) The city shall be entitled to recover its attorney fees and costs pursuant to section 8.18.280 of this chapter arising from an action to collect code enforcement fees imposed in accordance with this chapter.

(Ord. No. 2020-01, § 2(Exh. B), 2-26-2020)

(a) The prevailing party of any action, administrative proceeding, or special proceeding to abate a nuisance or to cause the abatement of a public nuisance or other violation of this Code, or in any appeal or other judicial action arising therefrom, shall be entitled to recover reasonable attorneys' fees. Attorneys' fees shall not be recoverable unless the city manager (or a designee thereof) or an attorney for and on behalf of the city elects in writing at the initiation of that individual action or proceeding to seek recovery of its own attorneys' fees.

(b) Provided that the city has made an election to seek attorneys' fees, an award of attorneys' fees to a person shall not exceed the amount of reasonable attorney's fees incurred by the city in that action or proceeding.

(c) Unpaid attorneys' fees shall be collectible in any manner allowed by law.

(Ord. No. 2020-01, § 2(Exh. B), 2-26-2020)