Griswold Receivers

A chronic nuisance property costs a city money in ways that don't show up on any one budget line.

-> Fire department response to a structure fire in a vacant building: $5,000 to $250,000 per incident, depending on severity.
-> Code enforcement inspections: $300 to $600 per visit, with repeat-offender properties consuming $1,000 to $5,000 per year in staff time, citations, and follow-up.
-> Legal and administrative costs to pursue civil remedies through hearings and court: tens of thousands of dollars per property.
-> Police and EMS calls to nuisance properties: thousands per month in unreimbursed services for properties with chronic activity.

Over a few years at a single property, the costs run into the 6 figures. Across a city's full inventory of chronic nuisance properties, the costs run into the millions.

A Health and Safety Receivership shifts the cost structure. The rehabilitation work funds itself through the receiver's certificate against the property. The emergency calls drop once the property is secured. The legal process moves on a court-supervised timeline rather than an open-ended enforcement cycle.

For cities closing FY26 and planning FY27, the math on blight is worth running before the next round of budget hearings.

Read more: https://na2.hubs.ly/H064XLK0

How Court Receivers Help Cities Avoid Blight-Damage Costs Court receivers help cities reduce costs from blighted properties by reducing emergency calls, streamlining enforcement, and securing unsafe buildings.

One question comes up in nearly every first conversation with city attorneys and code enforcement teams: does the city pay for the receivership?

It doesn't. This is the part of the receivership remedy that gets missed.

When a court appoints a Health & Safety receiver, the receiver gets authority to fund the rehabilitation through a receiver's certificate. The certificate is a debt instrument that takes super-priority status against the property. The project funding flows from the property. The city's general fund stays out of it.

The California Court of Appeal affirmed this priority structure in City of Sierra Madre v. Suntrust Mortgage, holding that the receiver's certificate sits ahead of existing mortgages and private liens.

For cities planning next year's code enforcement tools, the receivership remedy isn't a budget line. It's a financing mechanism that funds itself.

Read more: https://na2.hubs.ly/H062p060

Priority Funding: City of Sierra Madre v. Suntrust Mortgage, Inc. Health & Safety Receiverships: Super-Priority Funding - City of Sierra Madre v. Suntrust Mortgage, Inc.

Health & Safety receiverships fail at the appointment hearing more than they should. The reason tends to be the same: a thin evidentiary record.

Courts don't appoint receivers because a property looks bad. They appoint receivers when the moving party demonstrates:

→ Serious, documented code violations
→ A history of unsuccessful enforcement attempts
→ Notice given to the property owner and lienholders
→ No reasonable path forward through traditional means

The months before the petition is when the work happens: gathering inspection reports with dates, photographs with metadata, notices of violation, certified mail receipts, and owner correspondence. Each piece of documentation adds weight to the appointment.

For city attorneys preparing a receivership petition, the case gets built long before it gets filed.

Read more: https://na2.hubs.ly/H05YHYq0

Appointing a Receiver: What the Court Needs to See Receivership petitions succeed when cities present photos, timelines, and official records showing properties pose real public health and safety risks.

Every June, fire chiefs across California start watching the same properties.

The properties that are abandoned, or that boarded-up motel on the corner. The hillside parcel where the brush hasn't been cleared in 3 years, or the vacant duplex where transients have started lighting fires for warmth.

Vacant and abandoned properties draw fire, accidental and intentional. When they ignite, the city pays for emergency response, mutual aid, evacuation, and sometimes the property next door.

The receivership remedy gives cities a way to take control of these properties before fire season turns them into a line item. A court-appointed receiver can secure, board, abate, and rehabilitate the property, with funding from a super-priority lien against the property itself. The city's general fund stays out of it.

If your code enforcement team has a fire-risk property they've been watching, summer is the wrong time to wait.

Read more: https://na2.hubs.ly/H05WS8T0

Defending High-Risk Properties from Fires During Fire Season Learn how high-risk properties fuel fire risk during wildfire season in CA, AZ, and NV—and discover proven, code-backed strategies to protect communities.

From the outside, just another quiet Monterey home.

Inside? The home was "red-tagged" by the City, declared unsafe, and the elderly homeowner had nowhere to go.

When the Superior Court appointed Griswold as Health & Safety Code receiver, the mission was clear: rehabilitate the home and protect the homeowner.

Watch the full transformation 👇
https://na2.hubs.ly/H05QCZV0

Restoring homes. Protecting homeowners.

Health & Safety Receivership: Red-Tagged Monterey Home Restored | Griswold Receivers Learn more about Health & Safety Receivership services: https://www...

When should a city consider Health & Safety receivership?

Most code enforcement cases never need it. Administrative citations, abatement orders, and standard enforcement tools resolve the majority of property violations. The receivership remedy is rarely used, but for the right cases, it's the only one that actually works.

Four signals that a property may be a receivership candidate:

1. The owner can't or won't bring the property into compliance, and administrative remedies have been exhausted.

2. The conditions pose an ongoing risk to occupants, neighbors, or the public through hoarding, structural failure, illegal conversions, or chronic nuisance activity.

3. There are vulnerable occupants involved, such as elderly homeowners, tenants in substandard housing, or families with no safe alternative.

4. The City has the legal grounds but lacks the bandwidth, capital, or authority to rehabilitate the property itself.

When those conditions line up, California Health & Safety Code § 17980.7 gives the Superior Court authority to appoint a neutral receiver to take control of the property, fund the rehabilitation through a receiver's certificate, and complete the work to code.

If you're a code enforcement officer or city attorney weighing whether receivership fits a particular property, we're always happy to talk it through.

https://na2.hubs.ly/H05MTM10

The Health and Safety Receivership Process A court-appointed health and safety receiver can make your community safer.

Mold. Vermin. Exposed wiring. Health and safety violations in multifamily housing fall hardest on children, seniors, and vulnerable residents who often have nowhere else to go.

When owners won't act, California's §17980.7 gives cities a path to court-appointed receivership, a remedy that stabilizes the property.

Nevada's AB211 and Colorado's SB25-020 are expanding the same framework. Receivership is becoming the consensus tool for protecting housing stability when everything else has failed.

https://na2.hubs.ly/H05k5fJ0

Health & Safety Receivership for Multifamily Housing Discover how health & safety receivership for multifamily properties helps cities restore safety, protect tenants and rehabilitate substandard housing at scale.

Nevada's AB211 brought health and safety receivership to multifamily rental housing statewide, giving courts, cities, and tenants a structured path forward when properties become dangerous and owners won't act.

We've been working with Nevada city and county leaders on exactly this. Here's what the law enables and how the process works in practice: https://na2.hubs.ly/H05j7WP0

Receivership in Nevada: What the Enactment of AB211 Means for Blighted Rental Housing AB211 in Nevada empowers state governments to appoint receivers for unsafe rental properties. Learn how this new law strengthens tenant protections.

A question we hear often from city attorneys and code enforcement officials: "We know receivership is an option. How do we actually use it to move a problem property?"

The process is more accessible than most people assume. Cities petition the court, a receiver takes operational control, illegal activity gets addressed, and rehabilitation is funded through the property itself and not the municipal budget.

The owner doesn't have to cooperate. The city doesn't carry the burden. And the surrounding community stops absorbing the cost.

https://na2.hubs.ly/H05j7WM0

Your city's worst property isn't just an eyesore. Research consistently links chronic nuisance properties to higher crime rates in surrounding neighborhoods.

Health and safety receivership exists precisely for this moment — when traditional enforcement tools have run out of road. A court-appointed receiver can step in, take control, and move the property toward rehabilitation without waiting on an uncooperative owner.

When standard enforcement stops working, health and safety receivership gives cities a real path forward.

https://na2.hubs.ly/H05hYxz0

Chronic Nuisance Properties: The Overlooked Crime Connection Discover how chronic nuisance properties quietly fuel crime—and how cities have implemented their own remedies to reduce the cycle and restore safety.