FIRE HAZARD DISCLOSURE LAW TAKES EFFECT JULY 1
CAMARILLO – A new California law requiring fire risk disclosures by sellers of real property in high or very high fire hazard severity zones will take effect July 1.
The law, which started as Assembly Bill 38, requires such sellers to provide buyers with documentation that the property meets defensible space requirements.
Sellers in the Ventura County Fire Department’s service territory can obtain a report on their property’s defensible space status by visiting
department’s website and requesting an inspection. Sellers in the city of Ventura, Oxnard and Fillmore, should contact the appropriate municipal fire department.
The website also provides resources to check whether a property is in a fire hazard severity zone, and answers to frequently asked questions.
Many of the properties affected by the new law already receive inspections under the fire department’s Fire Hazard Reduction Program. But the new law also covers some additional properties. And the law requires the inspection to be within the past six months.
Property owners included in the Fire Hazard Reduction Program will continue to receive annual notices to abate fire hazard regardless of any prior defensible space compliance report required under the new law. The Fire Hazard Reduction Program notices are typically mailed in April with a June 1 deadline to clear dead brush and other fire hazards. See the department’s Fire Hazard Reduction Program page for more information.
