“a sight for sore eyes”

What to do when you live near an eyesore in Los Angeles.

Imagine this situation, you own a beautiful multimillion-dollar home in an expensive neighborhood full of attractive properties. You have been fortunate enough to acquire the property next door and are building another home. The views from both your properties are flawless but there’s a problem. Behind your properties there is a abandoned single house project in a shocking state of disrepair, that has been minimally tended to. The owner who is not local has completely abandoned this project which is now a major eyesore in your neighborhood.

This situation recently befell a client of mine. I worked with him to prepare an offer to purchase this eyesore, however so far the owner is not interested in selling at market value. What other recourse does a property owner have when there is an eyesore in the neighborhood damaging the value of their property?

Property owners assume that you should call the city to complain (311) however this does not always prompt immediate action by the city. The best response is to file a complaint online to The City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. The link to report a violation is here: ladbs.org/LADBSWeb/public-home.jsf. Then click on “online services” on the tool bar, which will drop down to “report a violation”

One complaint may not be enough to prompt an investigation. So it helps to get as many property owners as possible, affected by this eyesore, to go online and report the violation. If there are enough complaints about the property, the city inspector will go out to investigate. If the inspector feels there is just cause, the inspector will cite the property which will prompt the owner of the eyesore to take action.

I have been a realtor and real estate land specialist in Los Angeles for more than 15 years creating opportunities for land-owners and Buyers brokering vacant land throughout the Greater Los Angeles area. I can be contacted at sales (at) westsideland (dot) com and information from http://www.westsideland.com.