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Serviam as Court-Appointed Receiver Restores a Hazardous Rural Property

When a property deteriorates past the point where notices and citations can bring it into compliance, California law gives public agencies another path: asking the court to appoint a neutral receiver to take control, correct the violations, and return the property to safe and lawful use. In a recent matter, Serviam was appointed by the Court as Receiver over a severely neglected rural parcel and carried it from public nuisance to a completed sale. A Rural Parcel in Crisis The property is an approximately 2.4-acre parcel developed with a single-family A-frame residence, two non-permitted structures with habitable features, and various outbuildings. County inspectors visited the site after neighbors registered complaints and at the request of the Sheriff’s Department. What they found was extensive. Structures built without permits or approval included two single-family dwellings—both occupied and fitted with habitable features—non-permitted additions to the main residence, and two greenhouses with mechanical and electrical connections that had previously powered cannabis cultivation operations. Hazardous conditions extended across the parcel: Water intrusion...

When Routine Administrative Hearings Become Anything But Routine

Most administrative hearings proceed exactly as expected. An officer testifies, photographs and inspection reports come into the record, the appellant explains the circumstances, and the hearing officer issues a written decision. The calendar moves. The file closes. Then there is the other kind of hearing. The one where the appellant arrives with counsel who has never appeared before. The one where an interpreter is requested twenty minutes before the proceeding begins. The one where the only support for a key element is a neighbor’s complaint recorded in an officer’s notes, and the appellant objects. The one where two witnesses give flatly incompatible accounts of the same inspection, and someone has to decide who is telling the truth. These hearings are not rare. They are simply unpredictable. How they are handled in the moment—often without the luxury of research or reflection—frequently determines whether the agency’s decision holds up months later. Why the Administrative Hearing Record Matters So Much Administrative decisions in California are commonly tested by petition for writ of administrative mandamus under Code of...