Landlord faces sentence over illegal garage rental in El Rio
An Oxnard man pleaded no contest to illegally converting an El Rio garage into a dwelling, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
The 52-year-old entered the pleas to one count of unlawfully using and occupying a building without a certificate of occupancy issued by a building official and one count of unlawful conversion of a structure without obtaining a permit for the structure from a building official, prosecutors said.
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On Nov. 24, he was the legal property owner of a single-family residence at 493 Lemar Ave. where a fire and explosion occurred, seriously injuring three people living in the garage, prosecutors said. The cause of the fire could not be determined.
An investigation revealed the property owner had been warned twice by Ventura County code compliance officials about unlawfully renting his garage because it was not habitable or permitted for human residency, prosecutors said.
He was sentenced to 30 days of work release and placed on three years of summary probation including a prohibition on him renting out his garage without a required permit, according to prosecutors.