Kern County, CA Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Chapter 8.44 defines "public nuisance" broadly in Section 8.44.030(C) to include any property condition that is "unsafe, injurious to the health, safety, and welfare of the public," that "attracts, harbors or provides a breeding place or insects or rodents," creates a fire hazard, or is "indecent or offensive to the senses." Section 8.44.050 puts the duty on "every owner of property" to maintain it so it "does not contain or become a public nuisance" and to "promptly abate any public nuisance," with any violation subject to an administrative penalty under Chapter 8.54, though "no administrative penalty order shall become effective until after a final decision finding a nuisance exists is rendered." Before penalizing anyone, the public official (the building official, health officer or fire chief, or a designee) must investigate under Section 8.44.040, then mail an abatement order under Section 8.44.060 describing the nuisance, the required repair or removal work, and a deadline that is "normally being thirty (30) days from the date such notice is mailed." The owner can request a hearing under Section 8.44.080 before that deadline, which stays enforcement until the board of supervisors decides; abatement estimates over fifty thousand dollars automatically go to a board hearing regardless of a request.

If the owner still fails to act, Section 8.44.120 lets the public official secure, remove, demolish or otherwise abate the nuisance at county expense, with unrecovered costs becoming a special assessment lien on the property under Section 8.44.170, bearing interest "at the maximum rate allowed by law." For conditions posing an immediate threat, Section 8.44.070 allows summary abatement, including disconnecting utilities or boarding up a structure, without prior notice.