The inspection and the signed report from Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling; the repairs from Kaminskiy Care and Repair, based on Remington Avenue. Apartment buildings under SB 721, condominium associations under SB 326.
BBBAccredited BusinessKaminskiy Care and Repair inspects and repairs the exterior elevated elements that California's balcony law, SB 721 (Health and Safety Code 17973), requires on Temecula apartment buildings with three or more units: the wood-framed balconies, second-floor walkways and open stairs of the garden communities along Rancho California Road, Margarita Road and Moraga Road, the newer walk-ups and podium buildings of Uptown Temecula, Harveston and Temecula Parkway, and the apartments below Old Town on Pujol Street. Our sister company Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling, holding a B general building license since 2008 (CSLB #922807), carries out the inspection and signs the report, which reaches you inside the statute's 45 days. Kaminskiy Care and Repair (CSLB #1106209) then prices the findings line by line, pulls the City of Temecula permit and rebuilds what the report named, through the final inspection. A condominium association under SB 326 hands us the engineer's report and we do the work. The crew starts every day at our Temecula office on Remington Avenue, west of the 15.
Garden apartments, podium buildings, condominium associations.
A Temecula apartment owner owes the law three things: a qualified inspection of every balcony, deck, walkway and exterior stair that stands more than six feet above the ground and rests on wood, a signed report kept with the building's records through two inspection cycles, and the repairs that report calls for, finished inside the deadlines it starts. Kaminskiy does all three from one office across town. We list the element types on the building, check at least 15 percent of each from the walking surface and from below, deliver the report with photographs inside 45 days, then price every finding in writing, file the permit at the City's Permit Center on Main Street and do the work for the final.
AFTERBEFOREThe SB 721 Inspection
The Signed ReportJoists, Ledgers & Stringers
Deck Coatings for Valley Sun
Guardrails & Handrails
Walkways & Exterior Stairs
Immediate-Threat Shoring
Final Inspection & RecordsOur Remington Avenue office hears every one of these. Expect the inspection on the calendar within days, a written price per finding and a permit plan well before the clock runs down, and shoring ahead of everything else when an element is an immediate threat.
Street, unit count, and whether the building has been inspected before. We tell you which law applies and quote the inspection in writing before the call ends.
Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling checks a sample of each element type, photographs it and signs the report with the repair list, well inside 45 days.
Kaminskiy Care and Repair writes a price per finding, files the Temecula permit inside 120 days, rebuilds what the report named and documents it for the City's final.
Every job is backed in writing by our workmanship warranty and done by a Kaminskiy-certified, background checked technician.
The deck coating is the first thing valley sun ruins and the last thing the inspector grades. The grade rests on the wood carrying the balcony into the building (joists, ledger, rim board, stringers, post bases) and on the membrane, flashing and sealant that keep water away from it. Temecula's stucco buildings close the joist ends and the ledger behind a soffit, which is why the statute permits a moisture meter, a borescope or an opened panel: the courtyard view says nothing about the wood.
Rentals, three units or more in one building, garden community or podium: SB 721, due January 1, 2026, then every six years. Condominiums, three units or more: SB 326 (Civil Code 5551), due January 1, 2025, then every nine years, inspected by a licensed structural or civil engineer or an architect. In Temecula the condominium flats and townhomes cluster in Redhawk, Vail Ranch, Wolf Creek and Harveston, and the rental buildings line the arterials; an owner with both follows both.
Clock one starts when the report reaches the owner: 120 days to apply to the City of Temecula for the repair permit. Clock two starts when the permit is issued: 120 days to finish. An immediate threat ignores both, is closed off at once and is reported to Building and Safety within 15 days. Repairs still open 180 days after the report bring a notice from the inspector to the City, and 30 days after that the daily penalty begins.
One soft joist end or a rotted post base gets cut back to sound wood and sistered or swapped. Rot running the length of the ledger, or through most of the joists, means the balcony comes apart and is reframed. In both cases the coating goes back edge to edge, with a membrane rated for inland sun, because a patched coating on a Temecula balcony splits again at the seam by the second summer, and the final inspection expects a whole system.
Temecula is young for a California city. Nine in ten of its homes went up after 1980, a third of them in the 1990s and a third in the 2000s, and its apartment stock follows the arterials: two- and three-story stucco garden communities along Rancho California Road, Margarita Road and Moraga Road, the walk-ups and podium buildings of Uptown Temecula on Jefferson Avenue, Harveston and Temecula Parkway, and the apartments on Pujol Street below Old Town. The sun does the damage here, and the winter rain collects on it. Which corridor your building sits on decides what the inspection finds.
The 1980s and 1990s stock: stucco buildings around a pool and a carport court, with open stairs, second-floor corridor walkways and cantilevered balconies under an elastomeric coating. Thirty summers of hundred-degree afternoons chalk that coating and split it at the seams and the slider threshold; the Rainbow Gap breeze brings damp air every evening; the sprinklers soak the stair bases and walkway edges every morning; then the December storms push water through the cracks into the ledger and the joist ends behind the stucco. The usual finding is rot at the joist ends and a wet ledger, with stringers soft at the landing. The usual repair is new joist ends and ledger, flashing, a membrane rated for inland sun, and guardrails re-set into sound wood. These buildings have the most elements to count and the most to sample, so the inspection is planned around resident access.
The newer stock: wood-frame walk-ups and podium buildings from the 2000s on along the Jefferson Avenue corridor the City now calls Uptown Temecula, around Harveston, along Temecula Parkway, and on Pujol Street under the Old Town bluff, with Old Town's own mixed-use buildings carrying balconies over the street. Young framing fails at its details rather than its bones: a slider threshold with the flashing cut short, a sealant joint the Santa Ana winds pulled open, a scupper ponding water against the stucco, a liquid-applied membrane cooked through on the sunny corner. Buildings permitted from January 1, 2019 onward follow a separate rule, inspection within six years of the certificate of occupancy, which catches the newest Uptown and Harveston buildings. Condominium flats here answer to SB 326; the rental buildings to SB 721.
The hillside tracts east of the 15 hold the condominium associations: stacked flats and townhomes from the late 1990s on, under SB 326, where the engineer or architect inspects and we repair from the report, phased so residents keep their stairs. Murrieta, Menifee and French Valley have the same decades of garden and podium stock and their own city permit counters, and the Remington Avenue crew covers them. East of the city line the wine-country estates sit on county land: a guest house with a balcony or a tasting room with a deck is almost always outside both laws, because the statute starts at three units, but the same sun and the same drip lines rot the same posts, and we inspect and rebuild those on request, without a clock.
Start with the unit count, then the ownership. Three or more rental units in a building means SB 721 (Health and Safety Code 17973): first inspection due January 1, 2026, then every six years. Three or more condominium units means SB 326 (Civil Code 5551): first inspection due January 1, 2025, then every nine years, by a licensed structural or civil engineer or an architect. A duplex, a house with a guest unit and a wine-country tasting room fall under neither, although rot never checks the statute first. A building mapped as condominiums but rented as apartments is decided by how the units are held today; send us the address and we settle it on the call.
First the inspector makes a list: how many balconies, how many walkways, how many stair runs, how many decks. Then at least 15 percent of each kind gets a close look, by eye where the framing is open and by moisture meter, borescope or an opened soffit panel where the stucco hides it, taking in the walking surface, the coating and flashing, the guardrail and the anchors that hold it, and the joists and ledger underneath. The report that follows gives each element a condition, an estimate of remaining service life, a note on whether anything needs further study, and a flag on any element that endangers the people using it.
Four categories qualify under Health and Safety Code 17973: licensed architects; licensed civil or structural engineers; general contractors with an A, B or C-5 classification and five or more years as license holders constructing multistory wood-frame buildings; and individuals certified as building inspectors or building officials. A City employee cannot be the inspector. In Temecula the inspection is performed by Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling, our sister company, a B general building contractor since 2008 (CSLB #922807), and the repairs by Kaminskiy Care and Repair (CSLB #1106209).
Per building for the inspection, quoted on the first call from the element count, the number of element types and the access to the framing, then confirmed in writing. A twelve-unit garden building on Moraga Road and a two-hundred-unit podium building on Jefferson Avenue sit at opposite ends of that range. Per finding for the repairs, each with its own line in the proposal: a sistered joist end, a recoated walkway, a reframed cantilever with a new guardrail. Nothing is scheduled until you have read every line, and the report is yours to shop if you prefer another contractor for the work.
On the first call we settle SB 721 or SB 326, count element types from the street view and whatever plans you hold, and give you the inspection price in writing before the call ends.
Residents hear from you ahead of time. Each sampled element is checked from its deck and from underneath, closed framing is metered or a soffit panel is opened, everything is photographed, and we leave no mess behind.
Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling signs it: photographs, findings, service-life estimates, a repair list, and the 15-day notice to Building and Safety if anything is an immediate threat. Most arrive well ahead of the limit.
Each finding priced in writing, the permit filed with Temecula inside 120 days of the report, shoring first wherever it is needed, the carpentry inside the permit window, then a close-out letter with photographs for your records and your lender.
Subdivision (a) of Health and Safety Code 17973 sets the inspector's qualifications: an architect, a civil or structural engineer, an A, B or C-5 contractor with five years as a license holder in multistory wood-frame work, or a certified building inspector. Subdivision (g) sets the repairer's: a qualified and licensed contractor working to the inspector's recommendations, the manufacturer's specifications, the Building Standards Code and the City's requirements. The section is silent on whether the two can be related, so our group does it as two companies: the owner contracts with Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling for the inspection and the report, as the statute requires, and separately with Kaminskiy Care and Repair for the carpentry. Drop the second contract and the report is still complete.
The local enforcement agency is the City of Temecula's Community Development Department, Building and Safety Division, at the Permit Center on the first floor of 41000 Main Street. The City's own deck page exempts only a freestanding deck not more than 30 inches above grade, and an SB 721 element is by definition more than six feet up, so a balcony, walkway or stair repair takes a building permit, filed through the City's online Citizen Self Service portal with the inspector's report and the repair detail attached. The City's balcony and deck standard, handout CD-22, is written for single-family homes and duplexes only, so an apartment building files its own detail, and a reframed cantilever, a changed guardrail or any engineered alternative goes in with wet-signed and stamped plans. The City's published plan review runs ten to twelve working days on a new submittal. Permits filed since January 1, 2026 build to the 2025 California codes under Temecula Municipal Code 15.04. The City publishes no separate SB 721 page or portal; the report stays in the owner's records, and an immediate threat is reported to Building and Safety within 15 days.
January 1, 2026 was the first deadline, after AB 2579 pushed it back a year from January 1, 2025; the cycle repeats every six years, and a building whose permit was issued on or after January 1, 2019 is due within six years of its certificate of occupancy instead. Once a report lands, the owner has 120 days to apply for the repair permit and 120 days from its issue to finish the work. Repairs still open 180 days after the report trigger a notice from the inspector to the City, and a 30-day warning later a civil penalty of one hundred to five hundred dollars per day accrues until the work is done, backed by a building safety lien. Two cycles of reports stay with the building and go to the buyer at sale.
Based on Remington Avenue, in Temecula. The valley crew starts its day on Remington Avenue, west of the 15, so a Temecula inspection is usually on the calendar within days and a repair crew is minutes from Uptown, the Rancho California Road communities and the Pujol Street apartments, and a short drive to Murrieta and Menifee. Call 951-419-4481, text a photo of the balcony or the letter, or send the form, any day from eight to eight.
Can't find your answer? Call 951-419-4481 and ask us anything.
Call 951-419-4481California's answer to the Berkeley balcony collapse: a periodic check of every balcony, deck, porch, exterior stair, walkway and entry structure on an apartment building of three or more units when it sits more than six feet off the ground and leans on wood framing for support, railings and waterproofing included. Someone qualified under Health and Safety Code 17973 counts the element types, looks hard at a 15 percent sample of each, and puts a signed report with photographs in the owner's hands no later than 45 days after the visit. Buildings were due their first one by January 1, 2026; the next comes six years later.
Four kinds of professional, by Health and Safety Code 17973: architects and civil or structural engineers holding California licenses, general contractors with an A, B or C-5 classification who have spent five years or more as license holders building multistory wood-frame structures, and certified building inspectors or building officials. Whoever does it cannot be on the City's payroll at the time. For a Temecula building the inspector is Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling, our sister company, B licensed since 2008 (CSLB #922807), and the repair contractor is Kaminskiy Care and Repair (CSLB #1106209).
Within our group, yes, as two licensed companies with two contracts. Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling walks the building, signs the report and is paid for that. Kaminskiy Care and Repair bids the findings and is paid for the carpentry. Health and Safety Code 17973 asks only that whoever repairs be licensed, qualified and guided by the inspector's recommendations and the Building Standards Code; it says nothing against the inspector's affiliate doing the work. Because every finding is photographed and described, the report travels: take it to three other contractors if you like.
We price the inspection per building, not per balcony, and we do it on the phone from three facts: how many elevated elements there are, how many kinds, and whether the framing can be seen from below or has to be opened. A twelve-unit garden building on Moraga Road and a two-hundred-unit podium building on Jefferson Avenue sit at opposite ends of that range. Repair pricing waits for the report, then comes line by line and in writing. Call 951-419-4481 with the address and the unit count; the inspection number is yours before you hang up.
Schedule it today and hold on to the confirmation. Read the statute closely and the daily penalty is tied to repairs that sit undone after a report, not to a late inspection, and Building and Safety treats an owner with a date on the calendar very differently from one with nothing. Should the inspection turn up an immediate threat, we close that element and shore it before leaving and the City hears about it within 15 days; the rest of the findings go on the ordinary 120-day permit clock.
Under SB 326 (Civil Code 5551) the condominium association, not the individual owner, orders the inspection and pays for it, and in most sets of governing documents the association also maintains the structural framing and the waterproofing beneath the balcony surface, while an exclusive-use balcony splits by whatever the CC&Rs say. California limits the SB 326 inspection to a licensed structural or civil engineer or an architect. Hand us that engineer's report and we carry out the repairs in Redhawk, Vail Ranch, Wolf Creek or Harveston one building at a time, so stairs and walkways stay open, with paperwork the reserve study can use.
Days to the inspection, in most cases, and the signed report typically arrives long before the 45-day limit. After that the pace is set by the statute and by the City: a written price for each finding, a permit application to Temecula inside 120 days of the report, the City's ten-to-twelve-working-day plan review, then the repairs inside 120 days of the permit. Anything the inspector marks an immediate threat is closed and shored the day it is found.
All of Temecula from our office on Remington Avenue, including Old Town, Uptown Temecula and the Jefferson Avenue corridor, the Rancho California Road, Margarita Road and Moraga Road communities, Harveston, Meadowview, Paloma del Sol, Redhawk, Vail Ranch, Wolf Creek and Temecula Parkway, plus Murrieta, Menifee, French Valley, Wildomar and Fallbrook. Call 951-419-4481 with the building's address and we confirm it on the call.
Address, unit count, and whether a report already exists: send those and we call back with a price and a date. Phoning is quicker: 951-419-4481.
An inspection that meets the statute, a signed report within 45 days, and every repair on the list, from the Kaminskiy office on Remington Avenue.
We answer in under three rings, 24/7.No price games. You get a clear written quote before any work begins, backed by our workmanship warranty.
