Fontana, CA Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Sec. 18-2(d) declares it a public nuisance for a property owner, lessee or occupant to maintain a building that violates the Uniform Building Code, that meets the "dangerous building" definition in Sec. 302 of the city's adopted Uniform Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings, or that is a substandard building under the Uniform Housing Code. It separately defines an unreasonable state of partial construction as an unfinished building whose permits have expired or whose construction has been abandoned two or more years, and lists dilapidation, collapse risk, vacant-structure security failures and substantial deterioration such as peeling paint, broken windows and roofs in disrepair as nuisance conditions, plus junk, refuse, abandoned equipment and similar blight visible from the street.

A violation of Sec. 18-2 is itself a misdemeanor under subsection (f). Separately, Sec. 5-211 adopts the 1997 Uniform Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings by reference, and Sec. 5-212 rewrites that code's penalty section: any person who erects, alters, repairs, uses or maintains a building in violation of the adopted code is guilty of a misdemeanor, with each day of continued violation a separate offense, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, up to six months in county jail, or both. For abatement procedure, Sec.

18-3 requires the director of community development to notify the owner and set an abatement period of at least ten days for ordinary nuisances or at least 30 days for a substandard or dangerous building, with mortgagees and tenants also notified for building cases. If the owner does not voluntarily abate, Sec. 18-6 sets a formal hearing before the city manager, and Sec. 18-11 requires the resulting abatement order to allow no less than 45 days to complete work on a dangerous or substandard building, after which unpaid city abatement costs become a lien on the property that can be foreclosed for a money judgment.