Proposed Rental Inspection Law Raises Questions : Regulation: The ordinance would allow inspectors to check units from the outside whenever there is a change of tenants or owners. Critics cite the cost.

HAWAIIAN GARDENS — A derelict kitchen stove. Piles of building materials, bags of trash, broken-down vehicles--some so permanent that grass is growing up around the wheels.

These eyesores can be spotted in the yards of some Hawaiian Gardens homes.

But officials say fewer public messes are visible since the City Council passed a 1991 ordinance allowing the city get tough with property owners. A total of 82 properties have been cleaned up.

Now, authorities want another tool to help spruce up their city: the right to inspect rental property for unsafe conditions or illegal conversions of garages into dwellings.

A proposed ordinance, scheduled for City Council action Tuesday, would require inspection of rental property when tenants or ownership change, or if complaints about the property are filed.

The issue has divided the council and prompted questions from real estate brokers and property owners about the amount of proposed inspection fees and the way the law would be enforced.

Under the proposal, inspectors would be able to view property from the outside only, unless they saw evidence that building codes or health and safety laws were being violated.

Such clues, according to officials, would be a sagging roof, a house slipping off its foundation, garages sealed up or fitted with doors, windows and electrical lines, or camper shells and sheds that appeared to be lived in.

“We’re seeking to address the rental of units that are not approved units to be occupied, illegal structures and conversions,” City Administrator Nelson Oliva said.

If renters must move because of violations, the ordinance would require owners to pay their relocation costs. Owners would also have to pay an unspecified inspection fee and the costs of modifying or demolishing structures.

Officials said 65% of Hawaiian Garden’s 3,500 housing units are rentals.

“The biggest complaint we get is that residential areas really need to be cleaned up,” said Mayor Kathleen Navejas, adding that “absentee landlords are the biggest problem.”

Navejas said the ordinance should give inspectors access to all buildings, not just the right to visually inspect them.

“We’ve got a lot of property that has been subdivided illegally,” she said. “They’re renting out garages and have turned normal single-family homes into maybe double units without proper permits. Some do not even have restroom facilities.”

But Councilman Domenic Ruggeri calls this an invasion of privacy, arguing that signs of illegal units are apparent. “We’re going to have help from the neighbors. They’ll tell us if there are (too many) people. They have parties and make noise and there’s a big parking problem,” he said.

Councilman Lupe Cabrera said he opposes the entire ordinance because the city already has adequate laws to control substandard property. “We are able to go and abate nuisance property. The city is doing that now,” he said.

Cabrera said he particularly objects to inside inspections, calling them a “Gestapo tactic.”

The Rancho Los Cerritos Assn. of Realtors, which includes Hawaiian Gardens, said it is concerned about costs to property owners and about units sitting vacant awaiting inspection after tenants move out.

Jerry Lanting, a real estate broker and three-time president of the Hawaiian Gardens Chamber of Commerce, said he supports the purpose of the ordinance but objects to inspections each time property becomes vacant. “Inspections should be done one time only,” he said.

Rental property owners said the ordinance could cost renters their homes because many Hawaiian Gardens buildings are old and may not meet today’s standards.

Property owner Joyce Yeutter, an Artesia accountant, said nothing is wrong with the ordinance. “Some cases are absolutely appalling,” she said, but “it’s a matter of how they’re going to use it.”

For example, she said one of her rental units is a garage that had been converted before she bought it 35 years ago.

“Our property is well kept up,” she said.

Officials say the ordinance would be used to upgrade property and protect tenants, not punish owners. “The intent is to identify those units that are substandard, that present a danger to people living in them,” Oliva said. He said the city wants to help owners use federal home improvement funds to correct problems.

The Hawaiian Gardens measure is modeled after similar ordinances in Long Beach, Santa Fe Springs and Whittier, city Planning Director Carl Holm said. It most closely resembles the law in Santa Fe Springs, where 1,800 rental units are inspected each year. Fees are $50 for apartments and $75 for homes.

Fernando Tarin, Santa Fe Springs housing and community preservation director, said inspections were begun three years ago because absentee landlords neglected their buildings.

He said that serious deficiencies were found during the first year, including a leaking roof, a mosquito-infested swimming pool and a missing handrail on a second-floor walkway but that most problems since then have been minor.