Hoarding laws in California – Can it be a criminal offense?

Posted on May 24, 2022

If you or someone you know in California is a “hoarder,” criminal charges can be added to the pile of problems created by this challenging mental illness.

The Mayo Clinic defines “hoarding disorder” as:

“a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them. A person with hoarding disorder experiences distresses at the thought of getting rid of the items. Excessive accumulation of items, regardless of actual value, occurs.”

Sometimes, as the Mayo Clinic notes, hoarding includes “keeping dozens or hundreds of pets in unsanitary conditions because they can’t care for them properly.”

Hoarding can present serious health and safety problems for individuals living in cramped, filthy, and dangerous conditions. But when the hoarding also affects neighbors and others, it can become a criminal offense. Specifically, excessive hoarding can be charged as a “public nuisance.”

Under California Penal Code 372 and 373a PC, it is a crime to do any of the following:

• Maintain or commit a “public nuisance;”
• Willfully fail to perform any legal duty to remove a public nuisance; or
• Maintain, permit or allow a public nuisance to exist on the property that you own or control.

A “public nuisance” in Los Angeles is defined as anything that:

• Is injurious to health, indecent, offensive to the senses or an obstruction to the free use of property; and
• Interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by an entire community or neighborhood, or by any considerable number of persons.

In the case of hoarding, if the property owned and occupied by the hoarder is strewn with garbage, furniture, boxes, objects, or other hazards that are visible to the public, it could be deemed a public nuisance. Similarly, if the hoarding has created such unsanitary conditions that the odors from the property are “offensive to the senses” of those in the vicinity, public nuisance charges could be brought against the property owner.

Under either Penal Code 372 or 373a, creating or allowing a public nuisance in Los Angeles is a misdemeanor. Upon conviction, penalties can include:

• Misdemeanor (summary) probation;
• Up to six (6) months in county jail; and/or
• A standard misdemeanor fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000), plus an additional fine of two hundred dollars ($200).

Hoarding is a serious illness. Those who suffer from it put themselves in danger and need help with their disorder. But hoarding can also be a crime with serious legal consequences. If you or a loved one has been charged with a California hoarding offense, please give one of our experienced California criminal defense attorneys a call to discuss your situation.

About the Author

Neil Shouse

A former Los Angeles prosecutor, attorney Neil Shouse graduated with honors from UC Berkeley and Harvard Law School (and completed additional graduate studies at MIT). He has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, Dr Phil, The Today Show and Court TV. Mr Shouse has been recognized by the National Trial Lawyers as one of the Top 100 Criminal and Top 100 Civil Attorneys.