Methodology

Sources

Every row on this site comes from Santa Barbara County's responses to California Public Records Act requests about the Isla Vista Rental Housing Inspection Pilot. The first release, the property-level inspection results, is 1135 county documents parsed into 946 unit-level records. The second release adds 748 documents: the County's list of declined inspections with its waiver documents, and its code-enforcement case files. The searchable address universe is the County Assessor's Isla Vista situs index (849 addresses) unioned with 22 addresses that appear only in the inspection records and 2 that appear only on the declined list. County-reported aggregate figures are quoted with their source; everything else is computed from the records at build time.

What each state means

Result states are decided by one resolver module at build time; templates cannot compose claims. A clean report is rendered as what it is — a report that records no violations, inferred from the absence of checked boxes, not asserted by the County. Counts on units with unassigned officer marks are rendered as floors (“at least”). Missing resolution records are rendered as a gap in the release, not as a claim about the landlord.

Computed tallies

The result-state totals below include classifications of records still pending verification. On the home page, those records are counted only as pending; their individual findings remain withheld.

County-reported figures

Where the two disagree — the County reports 553 clean units against the 749 the released documents support, and 133 completed corrections against the 41 the documents identify — the site renders the document-level fact and quotes the County's figure beside it.

Attribution and its limits

“Landlord” is shown under two definitions on every row: the operator/manager the county form names (primary), and the owner of record on the county assessment roll. Where county records attribute a property to more than one name, or to none, the row says so instead of guessing. Matcher precision figures for the entity-matching step have not yet been measured; treat name attributions as documented but not yet precision-measured.

Declined inspections (County's second release)

The County's List of Declined Inspections names 315 addresses and 804 units, and the County released the waiver documents behind it. The County's program summary reports 823 units on 319 properties; the County has not identified the difference (19 units, 4 properties). Every address on the list now has its own page.

Who declined. The County released 742 waiver documents (733 scans and 9 emails). Each was read by OCR and sorted by fixed text rules: 665 are a resident's written refusal; 17 are an inspector's or County staff member's record of a resident's refusal; 1 is a property manager's email postponing inspection; 1 is a County inspection form marked consent denied with no identifiable signer; 2 read as a resident agreeing to inspection; 56 could not be classified. An address page says “Tenants declined the County inspection” only when at least one document at that address supports it (283 addresses). A tenant's refusal is not a landlord's refusal, and the site does not present it as one.

Letters addressed to residents

127 of the waiver documents, at 84 addresses (133 units on the County's list), are a letter addressed to residents that asks them to sign a form if they do not consent to the inspection. Issuers named on the letters: Playa Life IV: 66; HCOSB Inc.: 25; no issuer named: 18; St George & Associates: 17; Meridian Group: 1. The sentences below are quoted verbatim; each was transcribed by hand from the scan named under it. An address page quotes a sentence only when that address's own letter matched it (OCR agreement of at least 97%).

If there are habitability issues which were caused by a tenant, you, the tenant, could be responsible for the costs of those repairs.

Checked by hand against Declined Inspections/Waivers/6525 DEL PLAYA DR/6525 Del Playa-Unit 1.pdf

These inspections have started and we know of a few examples where the cost of the noted violation was passed on to the tenant per their lease agreement.

Checked by hand against Declined Inspections/Waivers/1031 EL EMBARCADERO/1031 El Embarcadero.pdf

While we are unaware of any unpermitted construction in your rental unit, the inspection could result in the removal of part or all of your property from the rental market if such conditions unknowingly exist.

Checked by hand against Declined Inspections/Waivers/6525 DEL PLAYA DR/6525 Del Playa-Unit 1.pdf

While we are unaware of any unpermitted construction in your rental unit, the inspection could result in the removal or alteration of part or all of your property from the rental market if such conditions unknowingly exist.

Checked by hand against Declined Inspections/Waivers/1031 EL EMBARCADERO/1031 El Embarcadero.pdf

In addition, because the owner must be present during the inspection, your landlord may also commence eviction proceedings against you if lease violations are identified during the government inspection.

Checked by hand against Declined Inspections/Waivers/6525 DEL PLAYA DR/6525 Del Playa-Unit 1.pdf

Your landlord will not retaliate against you if you choose not to permit the inspection, and you are not required under your lease agreement to permit the government inspection.

Checked by hand against Declined Inspections/Waivers/6525 DEL PLAYA DR/6525 Del Playa-Unit 1.pdf

We will not retaliate against you if you choose not to permit the inspection, and you are not required under your lease agreement to permit the government inspection.

Checked by hand against Declined Inspections/Waivers/1031 EL EMBARCADERO/1031 El Embarcadero.pdf

Code enforcement

The second release included 2 County code-enforcement cases: 6503 Del Playa Dr (case 25BDV-00175); 6646 Sabado Tarde Rd (case 25BDV-00185). Each appears on its address page with the violations quoted from the Notice of Violation and the County's own case history.