City Stiffens Ordinance on Property Maintenance
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In response to a lengthy dispute with a Huntington Harbour woman over conditions of her home, the City Council this week approved a tougher property maintenance ordinance.
The law aims at improving the city’s enforcement of housing violations, imposing a $500-a-day fine for each violation. The city can place a lien on a property to collect the fines.
The ordinance, which is tailored after a Long Beach law, comes after complaints that city codes governing property maintenance were too weak and allowed Elena Zagustin to live in her garbage-ridden home for more than a decade without penalties.
Zagustin has been involved in a long-running feud with neighbors over her property. City officials recently boarded up the 61-year-old woman’s home and charged her with 92 misdemeanor counts of neglecting the property. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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