H&S Code § 17980.7(c)(11) authorizes an attorney fee award only if a city sues under the State Housing Law to have a receiver appointed to remedy code violations in a non-compliant building. Here, Stabilis, as a lender, had already obtained an order appointing a receiver under its deed of trust when the city intervened seeking to require the receiver to remedy the housing code violations. In such a situation, H&S Code § 17980.7(c)(11) does not apply. Instead, CCP 568.3 applies in that situation and it does not allow the city any attorney fee award. The city was also not entitled to attorney fees under H&S Code § 17980.7(d)(1) because neither Stabilis nor the receiver was an “owner” of the property within that statute’s meaning. The city could not recover fees under its own ordinance because simply by having its motion to intervene granted, it did not become a “prevailing party,” no final judgment having been yet entered.
California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 2 (Ramirez, P.J.); June 13, 2018 (partial publication); 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS 540