Real property: blight.

(1) Existing law, until January 1, 2013, requires a legal owner to maintain vacant residential property purchased at a foreclosure sale or acquired by that owner through foreclosure under a mortgage or deed of trust. Existing law, until January 1, 2013, authorizes a governmental entity to impose civil fines and penalties for failure to maintain that property of up to $1,000 per day for a violation. Existing law, until January 1, 2013, requires a governmental entity that seeks to impose those fines and penalties to give notice of the claimed violation and an opportunity to correct the violation at least 14 days prior to imposing the fines and penalties, and to allow a hearing for contesting those fines and penalties. This bill would delete the repeal clause for these provisions and thus extend the operation of these provisions indefinitely. (2) The State Housing Law requires the housing or building department or, if there is no building department, the health department, of every city, county, or city and county, or a specified environmental agency, to enforce within its jurisdiction all of the State Housing Law, the building standards published in the State Building Standards Code, and other specified rules and regulations. If there is a violation of these provisions or any order or notice that gives a reasonable time to correct that violation, or if a nuisance exists, an enforcement agency is required, after 30 days' notice to abate the nuisance, to institute any appropriate action or proceeding to prevent, restrain, correct, or abate the violation or nuisance. This bill would prohibit an enforcement agency from commencing any action or proceeding until at least 60 days after a person takes title to the property, unless a shorter period of time is deemed necessary by the enforcement agency in its sole discretion, as specified, if the person has purchased and is in the process of diligently abating any violation at a residential property that had been foreclosed on or after January 1, 2008. This bill would require any entity that releases a lien securing a deed of trust or mortgage on a property for which a notice of pendency of action, as defined, has been recorded against the property, as specified, to notify in writing the enforcement agency that issued the order or notice within 30 days of releasing the lien. (3) Existing law authorizes, among other things, the enforcement agency to seek and the court to order imposition of specified penalties or the enforcement agency, tenant, or tenant association or organization to seek, and the court to order, the appointment of a receiver for a substandard building, if the owner of the property fails to comply within a reasonable time with the terms of an order or notice. This bill would authorize a court to require the owner of the property to pay all unrecovered costs associated with the receivership in addition to any other remedy authorized by law.