This story was originally published by The Merced FOCUS.
Landlords in Merced who fail to provide habitable living conditions for tenants will be fined $1,000 each day for uncorrected violations under a new ordinance.
The Merced City Council unanimously approved a fee schedule this week for its Repeat Housing Code Violators Program, which will penalize property owners who accumulate three housing code enforcement violations within a 12-month period.
“A landlord should not be able to ignore violations, delay repairs and continue collecting rent while families are exposed to unsafe conditions,” Daisy Ramos said during public comment at Monday’s meeting. “Find something high enough that landlords cannot simply treat penalties as the cost of doing business.”
Ramos was evicted from her unit in April after a conflict involving multiple housing code violations. Merced code enforcement officers cited her landlord, in this case a public housing agency, the Merced Housing Authority, with $800 for four violations in June 2025.
City council adds teeth to new policy
Council members said they hope the new fines are reasonable, but also severe enough to deter negligent landlords from charging vulnerable renters for substandard housing.
“I’m in favor of upping that $500 to $1,000, and ensuring that they do see that there’s teeth behind this policy,” Councilmember Fue Xiong, who represents District 6, said during the discussion Monday night.
District 4 Councilmember Shane Smith, who spearheaded moving the ordinance forward, including holding public hearings to gather public feedback with the city attorney, agreed with Xiong.
“We’re talking about people who are not getting the message, so I don’t feel too badly about $1,000 a day,” Smith said.
After a short deliberation, the seven-member council unanimously voted to double the daily penalty for property owners designated as repeat housing code violators.
For years, housing advocates have demanded a program to assist tenants living in substandard housing.
“No other city has adopted the exact model that Merced has,” City Attorney Craig J. Cornwell said. “Our program …creates a registry of property owners with multiple unresolved housing code violations.”
The fees will be collected separate from, and in addition to, the administrative fines incurred for a municipal code violation, which start at $100 for the first offense and increase to $200 and $300 for the second and third offense within a 12-month period.
Sgt. Alicia Prado with the Merced Police Department supervises the city’s code enforcement unit, a program staffed by four officers who investigate code enforcement complaints.
Prado said the ordinance won’t affect responsibilities for code enforcement officers.
She said she’s excited about the program and believes it will generate transparency for prospective tenants.
Incoming UC Merced students, for example, will now be able to access the city’s website and be warned of properties with documented habitability issues.
New ordinance
In June, council members unanimously approved the Repeat Housing Code Violators Program, which penalizes property owners who accumulate three housing code enforcement violations within a 12-month period.
When that occurs, those property owners will be fined $1,000, designated repeat housing code violators and listed as such on the city’s website.
Owners will have time to cure violations before they start accumulating a $1,000 daily fine. The timeframe to cure will be outlined in the notice of designation.
If housing code violations result in a tenant relocation, property owners will have to pay for two months of fair-market rent prices, according to the ordinance. Merced’s median rent price or fair market rent for a one-bedroom unit is $1,213.
If an owner files an appeal, the processing fee will be considered an advance deposit of the fine owed.
Merced has a majority-renter population. Approximately 45.9% of city residents live in owner-occupied units, according to the U.S. Census.