Malibu’s Realtors are opposed to the Point of Sale Ordinance; city working to clear language of the proposed law.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
Although both sides say they have the same goal to clean up the Malibu watershed, local Realtors and city officials are still not on common ground over a proposed ordinance that would require an inspection of septic systems prior to the sale of properties.
The so-called Point of Sale Ordinance has gone before the City Council twice for a vote, but official action has never been taken. The ordinance language is currently being reworked for a third time by Assistant City Attorney Gregg Kovacevich and Building and Safety head Craig George in preparation for another council review.
The proposed ordinance requires a septic system to be examined by a city-certified inspector prior to a property being sold. If the system is deemed to be working properly, it receives a certificate of approval that is good for at least two years. A system deemed to have problems would need to be fixed by the buyer or seller. This ordinance would also slowly place Malibu’s septic systems into a city database. The city is required by a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2004 with the Regional Water Quality Board to eventually have all the city’s septic systems catalogued to determine which ones are polluting Malibu’s watershed and the ocean.
Local Realtors have called the proposal too complicated, with Malibu Association of Realtors President Christine Rodgerson writing in a letter to local newspapers last week that it would cause homeowners to endure “a bureaucratic nightmare.” One of the Realtors’ problems is that the ordinance as it is proposed does not specify what determines a passing septic system. Also, many do not like that there is no guarantee that a passing system would receive the certificate quickly enough, therefore not impacting the escrow process. And, the Realtors say they already have a policy where the home buyer hires an inspector to look at a septic system.
“We’re looking at a duplicate system [with this ordinance],” Rodgerson said in an interview this week. “This ordinance requires a city-designated inspector, which is not necessary. If the city is looking to have the information [on the septic system], the buyer’s inspector can provide the information.”
But Mayor Jeff Jennings said in an interview this week that a home buyer cannot be allowed to just choose anybody to inspect a septic system. He said it is important that the inspection process be city-certified, which means the person has passed a test with the city and been placed on a list.
“We just want to make sure the guy doing the inspecting is an approved inspector,” Jennings said. “If that’s all we’re [the city and the Realtors] arguing about, how the inspector should be approved, then we are pretty much in agreement.”
One issue the two entities might still be far apart on is whether Malibu’s septic systems actually contribute to water pollution. Rodgerson wrote in her letter to the newspapers, “We feel that the council should be willing to determine the source of pollution before rushing into law an ordinance that will create a substantial hardship and confusion for homeowners in Malibu.”
Jennings said this week it could be true that more investigation needs to be done, but he felt the problem with that argument is state officials disagree. He said the best the city can do to prevent the state from outlawing onsite wastewater treatment systems altogether is this ordinance.
“That’s one of the things this program is designed to deal with, an attempt to establish that the city does have the power and willingness to oversee these systems,” Jennings said.
Several council members at a council meeting last month sided with the Realtors about the need for specificity on what requirements are for passing septic systems, and said although specific language should not be in the ordinance, a check list of sorts should be provided as a supplement that will easily tell a Realtor and the client what is required.
At the August meeting, all five council members praised the ordinance in spirit, but said some of the language needed to be cleaned up to avoid confusion and ambiguity. A committee of Kovacevich, George and Jennings was formed to hammer out a final proposal that could be ready for council review during the second meeting in September. But Jennings said it was determined at a meeting last week among the three that the process might take longer than expected. He said a determination was made that this ordinance should be combined with a 2001-approved city ordinance that set the standards for property owners applying for a septic operating system when doing new construction. Jennings said he does not know how long it will take for a new proposal to be ready.
As for the conflict with the Realtors, he said he expects city staff will be meeting with them again to discuss the proposal.
“I think there will be some meetings, but I think in all probability the major outlines are not going to be changed,” said Jennings, who said some of the technical details of the proposal could be ironed out with the Realtors.