La Mesa, CA Rental Inspections: Tenant Complaint Process (2026)

Chapter 19.04, Apartment Houses and Hotels, splits enforcement between two county officials acting for the city. The county surveyor and road commissioner enforces the state housing act's construction and alteration provisions (Section 19.04.020), while the county health officer, designated as La Mesa's own health officer, enforces the sanitation, ventilation, use and occupancy provisions (Section 19.04.030). Section 19.04.040 is the inspection trigger relevant to tenant complaints: the health officer must inspect every covered hotel or apartment house as often as a request for inspection is made, whenever the officer otherwise deems it necessary, and in any case at least once a year, so a single tenant complaint can force an inspection outside the annual cycle.

Operating a covered hotel or apartment house without a permit from the county health officer is unlawful under Section 19.04.050. To get one, the operator files a written application with the county health department describing the property and pays the annual inspection fee (Section 19.04.060), after which the health officer investigates the application and the sanitary conditions on site before granting or denying it (Section 19.04.070). A permit already issued can be suspended or revoked if the county health department finds that the holder, an employee, or anyone acting with the holder's consent violated a county ordinance, state law, or board of health rule that governs the property (Section 19.04.080).

The chapter's own definitions cover any structure with six or more guest rooms as a hotel and any multi-story structure with three or more separately living, separately cooking families as an apartment house (Section 19.04.010).