# A "hello" and a humble request for advice from Los Angeles



## Helo (Sep 22, 2014)

Hello everyone, I hope this finds you well.
I have been directed here in the hopes of finding answers that I lack among a community of like-minded and skilled individuals.
I'm attempting to put together a squat in Los Angeles but information is incredibly scarce.

I have found a building which (I think) will work but I'm unsure how to proceed; I've done research on the County Assessor's website but I'm unsure where else I can go or who I can call for more information. The building is relatively large and commercial but the signs so far point to its being abandoned. A Public Information Inquiry turned up the name of the owner but the address is listed as a PO box.

Any information regarding the specific laws in California would be greatly appreciated. I found some information on adverse possession but it was less than helpful.

Additionally, I know it's better to work with a group but I'm not really sure how to go about putting a group together. I have friends who are interested but they've all given me very soft "yes" answers with nobody being really committed. At this point I'm almost ready to put an ad up on Craigslist and just avoid using the word "squat." Any input for this front?

Thanks in advance.


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## Judas Iscariot (Sep 22, 2014)

Check zoning laws too because if it's zoned for commercial it should be a lot harder.. Any pics?


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## Helo (Sep 22, 2014)

Judas Iscariot said:


> Check zoning laws too because if it's zoned for commercial it should be a lot harder.. Any pics?


According to the PIR, it is zoned for Commercial/Industrial
I can't post links yet but you can go to imgur and after the com paste "/a/deeh6" w/out quotes.
I don't have my camera handy for better shots.


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## Judas Iscariot (Sep 22, 2014)

I'll check it out.. And good looking out with the whole idea of a squat.. If you are successful I'll be headed out that way after Nola.. Let me know something and I'll gladly put in some work free of charge..


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## Matt Derrick (Sep 23, 2014)

if you're serious about squatting, i'd start checking out some books on the subject. there's some great ones on www.sqdistro.com namely "Nine tenths of the law" and the video documentary "shelter". both of which you can find here:

http://sqdistro.com/product/nine-tenths-shelter-book-dvd-combo/


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## Helo (Sep 23, 2014)

I've read through the book and seen the documentary. The documentary was interesting but not particularly helpful in terms of information. The book was great and did provide some good information in terms of research. 

I do, however, still have some things as it relates to my particular situation that I haven't found addressed.

My research has turned up the name of the current owner. He bought the place in 2012 and his address is listed as a PO box in LA.

Also, the building is zoned as a commercial building. What, if anything, does that change legally for squatting?


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## Matt Derrick (Sep 24, 2014)

as far as i know, the zoning doesn't change any of the base factors of squatting, but i'm not a lawyer. depending on the situation though, the zoning could possibly change external factors like community reception, but i don't know enough about the place you're looking at.


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## Helo (Oct 2, 2014)

Alright, so in the intervening time I've managed to do more research. I stopped by and made a closer inspection of the building itself and make a run by our local planning office as well as find more information online.

I scored some decent pictures (visible here). As for the building itself, the gates to the parking lot are all locked but there are about ten to fifteen different locks between the handful of gates. None of them look like they've been opened in quite a while. There's a sign posted on the front of the building that basically says there are CCTV cameras in operation (I don't know if that means inside or outside, there are no cameras outside). I can't tell if there is power to the building, there is no power meter outside the building and what looks to be the breaker box there's (I would guess) a master cut-off switch and it's thrown into the "ON" position. There is at least one lock that looks relatively new. The interior (what I could see of it) looks like it has just a bunch of junk furniture in it. The place was (at one point) owned by a furniture store but after researching said store, it's out of business.

At the planning office I found out some decent information. I couldn't get blueprints (you can't get blueprints of the current structure without a deed or the signature of the actual owner and architect) and the original blueprints would have been worthless as the structure was built in the 40's and modified about a dozen times. I found the home address of the listed owner from when the Certificate of Occupancy was filed in 1998. It's listed as an "office" and "furniture store." I cold-called the phone number given for the listed owner and it's disconnected. I submitted an information request for the owner's home to see if they still live there and that hasn't come in yet.

The property taxes are paid up and seem to be current.

At this point, I'm not sure if I should try contacting the owner (and if so what to say) or just go ahead and crack the building. 

Any thoughts or input?


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## Dmac (Oct 2, 2014)

laws may vary from state to state, but in general you cannot live on commercial/industrial property. even if you are the owner. but for squatting i would go for it. just keep a low profile and don't have people coming and going at all hours.


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## Matt Derrick (Oct 2, 2014)

if you're looking to do an official/overt/public squat, this would be a bad candidate. i can see from your pics that there isn't a power meter plugged in, which is a good sign, but the fact that the back taxes are paid up is a bad sign. that's generally an indicator that the owner has the property on the market in some form, or has some kind of interest in renting out the property. aka, he gives a shit.

ideally, you'd want something with tons of back taxes or defaulted to the city, which means it's going to be in limbo for quite some time.


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## Helo (Oct 2, 2014)

dmac66 said:


> laws may vary from state to state, but in general you cannot live on commercial/industrial property. even if you are the owner. but for squatting i would go for it. just keep a low profile and don't have people coming and going at all hours.



So I basically have to keep a low profile permanently? Not just until residency has been established?



> if you're looking to do an official/overt/public squat, this would be a bad candidate. i can see from your pics that there isn't a power meter plugged in, which is a good sign, but the fact that the back taxes are paid up is a bad sign. that's generally an indicator that the owner has the property on the market in some form, or has some kind of interest in renting out the property. aka, he gives a shit.



My guess is he's a speculator. We have a lot of people in this area who come in and buy up property then just sit on them for twenty-plus years waiting for the value of the property or the land to go up then selling. I got the PIR back this morning, he still lives at (or at least owns) the address listed on the Certificate of Occupancy though the phone number he provided was disconnected.



> ideally, you'd want something with tons of back taxes or defaulted to the city, which means it's going to be in limbo for quite some time.


How do I go about finding properties like that? We have some -very- strict blight laws in LA where, even if it is abandoned, it cant look abandoned.


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## Matt Derrick (Oct 3, 2014)

In LA, I don't know. But it tends to be different in every state. Sometimes there's government websites that list properties like that. If you can talk to someone who works in real estate, they might know. For a long time in Baltimore we had a friend that worked in real estate and would hook us up with a list of all the "squattable" properties in the county which was pretty nice.


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## Matt Derrick (Oct 3, 2014)

Oh, and why are you so set on LA? I'm not a fan of that place, and I'm speaking from experience having lived there for 3 years.


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## Helo (Oct 4, 2014)

Matt Derrick said:


> In LA, I don't know. But it tends to be different in every state. Sometimes there's government websites that list properties like that. If you can talk to someone who works in real estate, they might know. For a long time in Baltimore we had a friend that worked in real estate and would hook us up with a list of all the "squattable" properties in the county which was pretty nice.



I checked with Code Enforcement, they don't maintain a public list of buildings cited for blight. We also have some pretty strict laws regarding what a building can't look like (thanks to the "broken windows theory" fixation) and the city will actually go around and fix places up if they're abandoned and look shoddy. It makes spotting a place extremely difficult if you're just running around the streets.



Matt Derrick said:


> Oh, and why are you so set on LA? I'm not a fan of that place, and I'm speaking from experience having lived there for 3 years.



Most of what and who I know is here. Both of my partners are stuck here (education) for the next several years and housing is getting more and more expensive every year. Our plans are to move north once they're finished with their education. I'm living somewhat hand-to-mouth at the moment so relocation isn't in the cards for the time being.

I also don't really have itchy feet the way a lot of people do. I love LA, for all its faults (*rimshot* Sorry, LA joke) and were it not for my health as it relates to the weather and the cost of living, I wouldn't want to leave. But more than that I just don't have any real wanderlust.


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## Matt Derrick (Oct 4, 2014)

fair enough, that was actually a pretty funny joke, i hadn't heard that one


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## Dae Dimple (Dec 7, 2014)

How goes the hunt / group search?


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## Helo (Dec 7, 2014)

Dae Dimple said:


> How goes the hunt / group search?


Not well, TBH.

I want to find a location but they're next to impossible to find in LA because the property values are so high. Developers will snap up anything left unattended for five minutes, even if it's destroyed because the land under it is still worth a huge pile of money. Couple that with draconian anti-blight laws and the abandoned stuff is either non-existent or extremely difficult to find.

I did find one place but it's zoned commercial.


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