What Are the Duties of the Code of Enforcement in Riverside County, California?

Investigating Code Violations

• In some cases, Riverside County's code enforcement division finds out about potential code violations via tips from community members. Code enforcement officers act on tips by going to the property in question and checking for obvious signs of blight, which can include, but isn't limited to, broken down vehicles in yards, overgrown grass, insect infestation in buildings and an excessive number of animals residing on a piece of property.

Issuing Citations

• Riverside County code enforcement officers can issue administrative and parking citations to property owners to get them to correct certain violations. An administrative citation is for the majority of code violations; a parking citation is for vehicle-related infractions. As of April 2011, admin citations must be paid or appealed within 20 days of issuance, and parking citations must be paid or appealed within 21 days.

Community Outreach

• The code enforcement division has an eight-member Community Improvement Program team that helps residents remove blight and take an active role in community improvement. One team member is assigned to each of the county's five code enforcement districts, and they work with community leaders on organizing community meetings, neighborhood clean-ups, information fairs and school assemblies and to provide resources and educational material to residents.

Legal Action

• In extreme cases, a form of legal action, called a notice of noncompliance, can be issued. This document is recorded against a title's property and stays in effect until all violations have been cleared up, the property has been reinspected and a release of the notice has been issued. The purpose is to warn prospective buyers of the property in question that the property has pending code violations on record against it.