Idle Doodle: Not your property, still your responsibility
My sister bought a house in Oakland recently and I found out a few days ago that she has to repair the sidewalk. What?
The sidewalk is city property. How could she be forced to pay for repairs of city property?
It turns out that while sidewalks have been the responsibility of the homeowner for a while, the Oakland city council passed an ordinance a year ago that upon the sale of a house, the sidewalk in front of the house must be inspected and repaired if it fails certification. It also shifted injury liability on public sidewalks from the city to the adjacent homeowner.
What a nice power that must be, to shift liability and maintenance away from any property you own! I think my household will hold a vote and shift our house maintenance and injury liability to our city councilors.
My sister can afford this, but what a disaster for the poorer population segment. A permit is $400+. A survey maybe $200. The actual repair a few thousand, depending on severity. There could be long delays in repairs from long response times at permit counters and contractor shortages. There is a program for low-income people, but it comes with restrictions and is subject to funding availability. Imagine this. A rich person walks down the sidewalk in front of a house whose family can't afford the repairs. He trips, falls, and sues the poor family. If the family can't afford the few thousand for repairs, they sure as hell can't afford the tens to hundreds of thousands from the lawsuit. And they don't even get the benefit of owning the property.
A few years ago, I worked on a housing project in Tracy, just outside the Bay Area. It wasn't a large project, but the city tried to extort the developer to pay for the repair of city roads two miles away from the project.
With Oakland roads so bad that an anonymous group called the Pothole Vigilantes goes out at night to fill potholes, I wonder how long it will be before they make homeowners pay for roads in front of their houses.
