Any business lawyer? Please answer my question. My house has been used by a previous tenant to obtain a site license from the California Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), to run a substance abuse treatment center. She gave me a 30-day notice to vacate in February this year, had a DHHS person visit my home in April and she was able to renew her license till 2020. She left my home soon after the visit from DHHS and is conducting business elsewhere with the site license obtained on my home. DHHS web site and several other advertisements on-line list my home address as her business site (substace abuse treatment center). Please let me know what are the legal implications of this? Can this person legally allowed to do this? Thank you very much. What are my options as a landlord?
1 Answer
It's hard to say without knowing more facts about the license and facility. Assuming that this is a Substance Use Disorder treatment residential license, the initial license application information is available here. The very first thing they say is that
Current providers wishing to relocate, add or delete treatment services, increase/decrease treatment beds or change target population must complete the Supplemental Application DHCS 5255
and that form says, in red,
If you are requesting to relocate you must include a letter explaining why you are moving, anticipated move date and the new facility address.
So... assuming the person did properly notify DHCS, perhaps there is a lag in updating facility addresses. More likely, the person was evading the requirement for a site inspection (fire safety-related), and that's against the law. You can certainly report your suspicions to the SUD Compliance Division; I don't think there is a law that punishes you if you don't act on your suspicions, but it could be a nuisance for you if the world incorrectly thinks that your house is a SUD treatment facility.
