In May 2019, the City of Chino began receiving complaints about a rodent infestation coming from a dilapidated house, where individuals continued to reside. For a year the complaints rapidly increased as rodents began spreading to neighboring homes, even vehicles. Wires of neighbor’s cars were chewed through and damaged; a rodent was found dead in a vehicle’s trunk.
The City’s enforcement team used their compliance efforts to ensure the owner resolved the infestation, which the owner was unable to do. The occupants of the home appeared to be hampering eradication efforts. The City needed to ensure the property was safe for occupants and the community.
According to Discover Magazine, female rats can mate around 500 times in six hours, and brown rats can produce up to 2,000 offspring in a year, which alludes to the validity of the property’s estimated 10,000 live and dead rodents found during that timespan.
“In April 2020, our firm got involved, and we helped the City find a solution with the owner to ensure remediation of all issues at the property to avoid further enforcement, including court action. The City issued a detailed list of issues requiring remediation after a comprehensive inspection with both building and code inspectors under the California Health and Safety statutes. Ultimately, the owner decided to sell the property to a buyer who agreed to remediate all of the issues and the City was able to work with both the then-owner and buyer to craft an agreement for this arrangement. The property was also severely dilapidated, with holes in the walls and ceiling. The property required complete gutting down to its studs, given the urine and feces saturation in the construction material membranes among other sanitation and substandard conditions.”
Silver & Wright LLP Attorney Kellie Shin
The property was sold in December 2021, and its new owner immediately stepped in to eradicate the rodent infestation—they began to do so before escrow was closed to show their good faith intent to swiftly resolve the issues at the property. The company that removed all the rodents had never seen an infestation so bad, such that they used the experience as training and digital content for marketing purposes.
“This was one of the worst rodent infestations seen. The approximate tally of rodents caught was in the 1000s. Today, however, that property and the neighborhood is safe. Silver & Wright LLP was proud to help the City with this successful outcome.”
Silver & Wright LLP Partner Valerie Escalante Troesh