03 - Form 9 (Residential Property Reports) Processing

Purpose

Per LAMC 96.302 - Reports Required, prior to entering into an agreement of sale or contracting for an exchange of any residential property, or, where an escrow  agreement has been executed in connection therewith, prior to close of escrow, the owner or his agent shall obtain from the Department a report of the Superintendent of Building and a report of the City Engineer; said reports, containing the information specified in LAMC 96.304.

Per LAMC 96.304(b) - Content of Reports, City Engineer Reports,  the City Engineer report shall contain the following information:

1. An estimate of pending assessment liens on residential properties for public maintenance of private streets. Such estimate shall be provided upon determination of the cost of correcting any hazardous condition upon a private street whenever such corrective work is ordered by the Board of Public Works pursuant to the provisions of LAMC 65.13 - Failure to Comply with Order - Bureau of Street Maintenance May Repair Private Streets.

2. An estimate of pending special assessment liens for public improvements proposed under assessment procedures authorized by State law for which an ordinance of intention has been adopted by the City Council of this City.

3. Pending special assessment liens for weed clearance originating under the provisions of Title 4, Division 3, Part 2, Chapter 13, of the Government Code of the State of California.

4. Notices of record to repair sidewalks issued by the Department of Public Works under the authority of Division 7, Part 3, Chapter 22 of the California Streets and Highways Code.

5. Existing orders or notices of record received by the Department of Public Works from the Fire Department requesting the initiation of proceeding for brush abatement under the provisions of Title 4, Division 3, Part 2, Chapter 13, of the Government Code of the State of California.

6. All recorded assessment liens as known to the City Engineer except for street lighting maintenance assessment liens.

7. Whether or not a house sewer connection permit has been issued pursuant to LAMC 64.12 - House Sewer Connection - Permit. 

8. Notices of making of application for essential public utilities assessments pursuant to LAAC Chapter 8, Division 6 - Assessments for Essential Public Utilities, which have not yet been acted upon by the City Council, or, if acted upon, have resulted in an assessment lien which is not yet delinquent.  

Definitions

The following definitions describe the files in the Form 9 database.

Abatement:  The update is currently being accomplished by the LADBS staff.  I’m not sure if this has been automated since I turned the function over to Central.  It contains AINs (BPP); PIN, the parcel identification number for the City’s land base; and the street address of the property with a lien or a pending placed or in the process of being placed on it for an abatement that the LADBS contracted to abate.

Fire Department - Brush Clearance:  The Fire Department is now maintaining the Fire Department Brush Clearance file.  The staff in the Valley is adding the parcel information to the database, and the accounting group in City Hall East is removing parcels as the fees are paid.

Lot Cleaning (Bureau of Street Services (BSS):  The update is currently being accomplished by the BSS contact e-mailing a file to the contact in Central District.  Some adjustments to the file and it is uploaded to the Form 9 application.  BSS provides the AIN (BPP, APN) for those parcels on which they have performed, or contracted for, lot cleaning work.  The list is updated on a monthly basis.

Treasurer’s Data:  The update is performing on a monthly basis by downloading a file from the mainframe.  Central District then make some adjustments to the data and then uploads the updated file to the Form 9 application.  The file contains the AIN (BPP, APN), the bond number issued by the Treasurer’s Office that has the form 301-057-0009, the assessment number assigned sequentially in the assessment project, and the project title.

Tract Card File:  Muriel Moss (LADBS?) updates this file with data regarding assessment projects as they go through the implementation stages.  The Tract Card database primarily contains data on 1911 and 1913 Assessment Act projects, and to a lesser extent Abatements, Barricades, Demolitions, etc. from the Department of Building and Safety.  Almost all of the LADBS data is now taken care of in the Abatement file and for assessment projects, the data is entered in the database sequentially.  The following information is entered into the database using the data entry screen:

1. Engineer Book-Page – This is a book that Engineering keeps that has information on the project and has the form “Book-Page” (i.e. 364-1)
2. Treasurer Book-Page – This is a number assigned by the Treasurer’s Office to keep track of the bond that has been issued for a parcel for a particular project.
3. Roll Book-Page – This is a number that has the form “Book-Page” (i.e. 13-06)
4. Assessment Number – This is a number that is assigned to each parcel sequentially in the assessment project.
5. Charges – There is a place to enter charges, but it is not used because other entities are responsible for the actual charges and would have the correct amount available to them.
6. O.I. Date (i.e. 07/29/98) – O.I. stands for Ordinance of Intention.  The date entered is the date that the Council adopts the Ordinance of Intention to proceed with an assessment project.

7. Confirmed Date (i.e. 04/01/02) – Confirmed Date is the date that the Council confirmed that the project will proceed to construction.

8. Project Title – The assessment projects (1911 & 1913 Act) have project titles.  It is important to use the exact title of the project in the documents approved by Council.
9. Abatement, Barricade, and Demolition are no longer being used in the Tract Card File.  All of these that result in a lien or pending lien are now being received in an electronic file.
10. Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN) – Also called Assessor Identification Number (AIN) is now the more common designation.  This is the number assigned by the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office.  It has the form of Book-Page-Parcel (i.e. 1234-123-123)
11. Legal Description – Enter the Tract name or number, the Block and the Lot.  This information is critical, because the liens are placed on the parcel.  If there is any question, the legal description takes priority. 

Essential Public Utilities (EPU):  This file is no longer being updated since LADWP discontinued the imposition of these fees.  The file could be deleted.

Nuisance:  This file contains parcels that have liens against them. This file is currently not being updated.  At one time the application was going to be modified to enable BSS staff to update the data on a regular basis.

Chapter 22 and Chapter 27 Data:  These two chapters of the Streets and Highways Code allow the Bureau of Street Services to either repair or place new sidewalk and then charge the property owner.  There are currently four records in the Chapter 22 file.  However, they are very old and I suspect that they have been paid or otherwise resolved. There are currently no records in the Chapter 27 file.

Form 9 Processing - Sewers

The BOE Central District "B" Permit group is the only group in the City that currently processes Form 9 Sewer and Lien Reports.  BOE "B" Permit Staff are responsible for processing the Sewers and Liens in the Form 9 application on a daily basis.  This  is done within the LADBS on-line application called Autores. Once you open the application, log in with an account that is provided by LADBS staff that process the 9A report.

In order to process the sewers in the Form 9 application, click on the SEWERS tab on the upper right corner of the page and follow the guidelines below.

1. Assigning Records (if a record needs to be unassigned, BOE staff will need to reach out to the Supervising Civil or LADBS for reassignment)

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   1. Prior to being able to process the Form 9, BOE Staff will be required to "assign" themselves records from the "Pending" section of the page
   2. In the Pending grid, assign the entries to yourself by checking the checkbox on the left side of each pending entry
   3. Click the hamburger menu on the upper right side of the "Pending" bar and select "Assign to Me"
   4.  Click on Continue to proceed
2.  In the "Assigned to Me" grid, click on an RPR No. you wish to review
3. Click "Start Application"
4. Select the APN under "Assessor Book, Page and Parcel Information and copy the APN.
5. Open NavigateLA
   1. Turn on the BOE Permits and Sewer Information layers (you must be zoomed in to at least 1:4,514)
   2. Click "Sewer Wye Maps" under "Base Maps" on the bottom of the Table of Contents menu and slide the transparency bar to allow visibility if necessary
   3. Paste the APN in the search field and confirm the address matches what is shown in Autores
      1. If the record is not found, search with the address provided in Autores.  The address and APN must match in both NavigateLA and Autores.
         1. If there is a discrepancy, BOE staff would select "Internal Reject" from the bottom of the screen and place in the comment box "Wrong APN. Should be XXX".  This message will be sent back to LADBS for correction.
   4. While in Autores, BOE staff will have the option to select  one or more of a Sewer 9A status' in the Sewer Section grid (PDT is Positive Dye Test).  
      1. Permit Issued:
         1. The lateral is green and there is NO red permit target circle 
         2. The lateral is green or red, there is a red permit target circle (use the most recent permit issued), the Inspection Record (under View Inspection Record) shows information in both the "Inspected By" and "Date Inspected" area are populated, and there is a note in the "Remarks" section of the inspection record of the sewer not being capped.
         3. The lateral is red, there is NO red permit target circle, and on the Sewer Wye map brackets or parentheses exist on the property and is NOT followed by PDT (adjustment to the transparency bar may be required to see brackets [ ] or parentheses ( ) on the Sewer Wye map)
      2. No Permit Issued:
         1. The lateral is red, there is NO red permit target circle, and on the Sewer Wye map there are NO brackets [ ] or parentheses ( ) (adjustment to the transparency bar may be required to see brackets [ ] or parentheses ( ) on the Sewer Wye map)
      3. Connected to sewer.  No Permit Issued
         1. Lateral is red, there is NO red permit target circle, and on the Sewer Wye map there are brackets or parentheses which are followed by PDT.  BOE should also check the box for Positive Dye Test.
         2. Lateral is green or red, and there is a orange permit target circle with a Positive Dye Test Certificate (if there is also a red permit target circle, this would trump the orange permit target circle), and the permit that was issued was only for a Dye Test.  BOE would also check the box for Positive Dye Test.
      4. No sewer connection.  Permit Issued (can be selected in conjunction with "Sewer line available" once BOE determines a mainline sewer is along the frontage of the property):
         1. Lateral is green or red, there is a red permit target circle (use the most recent permit issued), the Inspection Record (under View Inspection Record) shows NO information in both the "Inspected By" and "Date Inspected" area
         2. Lateral is green or red, there is a red permit target circle (use the most recent permit issued), the Inspection Record (under View Inspection Record) shows information in both the "Inspected By" and "Date Inspected" area, and there is a note in the "Remarks" section of the inspection record of the sewer being capped.  
      5. Sewer line available:
         1. Property is located within 200 ft from a mainline sewer.  BOE staff would also need to check "Connected to sewer.  No Permit Issued" or "No sewer connection.  Permit Issued".
      6. No sewer line available:
         1. Property is not located within 200 ft from a mainline sewer.  
         2. No red permit target circles are attached to the property
      7. Positive Dye Test (can be selected in conjunction with all choices):
         1. Orange permit target circle with a Positive Dye Test Certificate
         2. Sewer Wye map brackets or parentheses exist on the property and is followed by PDT (adjustment to the transparency bar may be required to see brackets [ ] or parentheses ( ) on the Sewer Wye map)
6. Mark as Completed and click continue

Form 9 Processing - Liens

The BOE Central District "B" Permit group is the only group in the City that currently processes Form 9 Sewer and Lien Reports.  BOE "B" Permit Staff are responsible for processing the Sewers and Liens in the Form 9 application on a daily basis.  This  is done within the LADBS on-line application called Autores. Once you open the application, log in with an account that is provided by LADBS staff that process the 9A report.

For lien's, BOE staff begin the process only after a customer contacts BOE in order to manually clear liens showing up on the property's Title Report.  

In order to process liens in the Form 9 application, BOE Central District staff should perform the following tasks:

1. From the BOE Quick Links page, open the "Form 9" found on the BOE intranet site (bottom right corner)
2. From the left menu click "Form 9 Search"
3. Enter the APN and click search.  If the customer is not able to provide BOE with an APN number, staff can look the address up in NavigateLA and the APN Number will appear in the Report Window.
4. Check for "Not Clear" or "Clear" on the grid
   1. Not Clear:  If there is an item identified as "Not Clear", BOE notify the customer the item is showing as Not Clear and they must reach out to the appropriate department .  LADBS should have also provided the customer with information on which department (including contact information) they need to contact to clear the lien.  BOE will not be able to process the Form 9 if the customer show a payments receipt.  LADBS may not put it in the system immediatley, so BOE staff will need to continue to check the system
   2. Clear:  If all items are "Clear", BOE shall contact LADBS to request the lien be placed in the Form 9 Application for BOE processing
5. BOE staff to login into the Autores Application
6. Click on the LIENS & ASSESSMENT tab on the upper right corner of the page
7. Click the RPR you wish to review in the Pending grid under Liens & Assessment 
8. In the hamburger menu in the top right, click "Assign to Me"
9. Click "Start Application"
10. Click "Add/Update Description" under the Liens & Assessment Section
11. Click "This property is cleared of all items listed above in Description of City Engineer's Special Assessment Records Report" (BOE staff should NOT select the second option as they do not determine who the lien belongs to)
12. Click "Save"
13. Mark as Completed and click continue

UPDATE OF THE “liens_not_clear” file.  The file is currently being updated on a daily basis.  The file is populated from databases in the Form 9 application. The file is used to clear parcels that don’t have a record in the file.  LADBS downloads this file daily and runs it against all of the Form 9s that have been submitted.  If there is no record in the file, the Form 9 is automatically cleared