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Across the nation, millions of renters live in units that fail to meet basic safety and health standards, intensifying an already critical housing shortage. Aging buildings, deferred maintenance, and chronic code violations create environments that endanger tenants while constraining the state’s limited affordable housing supply. Substandard multifamily properties not only threaten residents’ well-being but also strain the local governments responsible for enforcement. Health and safety receivership offers a structured, legal solution to restore these properties efficiently, protecting tenants and preserving housing stock.

California has become a blueprint for how other states enforce health and safety protections in multifamily rental properties.

Substandard housing is a growing issue. It’s estimated that 330 million urban households worldwide live in substandard housing. In the United States alone there are about six million homes and apartment buildings listed as substandard, and the problem isn’t going away any time soon.

Here on the Griswold Law Blog, we use the terms “Health & Safety Code Receiver” and “Real Property Receiver” quite a bit in our articles about the different types of situations where a court-appointed receiver can provide a remedy for problematic structures (i.e. abandoned properties or slumlord-owned properties). However, receivers can be appointed by the Court to rehab non-residential properties as well. Two example scenarios are explained below: