When Jeff Shih moved to the Oakland hills, he knew he was moving to an area with a history of devastating fires. So he wasn't surprised when inspectors stopped by his house to tell him he had to trim his grass and nearby trees to comply with Oakland's strict fire code.

What did surprise him, as the years passed, was how the vacant lot next to his house on Mattis Court - home to a towering grove of eucalyptus - became cluttered with dead limbs and tall grass while the Fire Department did little more than issue notices to the owner, despite numerous complaints.

"It's seems like a weird double standard. I moved in here five years ago and I've gotten warnings about how tall my grass is, but just over the property line you've got this," Shih said, pointing down the hill at a carpet of downed branches.

Officials with the Fire Department's vegetation management bureau say they are doing their best with limited money and staffing. But Shih, a 36-year-old marketer at Dolby Labs in San Francisco, is losing patience at a time when the California drought is bringing extreme fire danger - and in the wake of several suspicious fires reported in Oakland last week.

"I just spent $1,000 clearing my own lot, but it feels like it's all for naught," he said. "All it would take is someone throwing a cigarette off of the highway and my house would be gone in a flash."

Getting no results

Shih sent the first of numerous complaints to the Fire Prevention Bureau, an office within the Fire Department, in October 2011. Since then, he said, he's gone back and forth with officials, and the lot has been deemed out of compliance by inspectors three times, most recently in November 2012. But nothing has been done to clear it, he said.

When properties are deemed out of compliance, a notice is served to the owners giving them 10 days to clean up potential hazards. If they haven't fixed the problem after 10 days, the city has the authority to do the work itself and charge the owners.

The owner of the property next door to Shih, Tran Vu LLC, a design and engineering firm based in San Jose, did not respond to requests for comment by The Chronicle.

Property inspections have been an ongoing problem in Oakland. The city auditor released a scathing report on the process last year, in which seven unnamed Fire Department employees described it as "lackluster" and "not taken seriously."

Of 829 properties deemed out of compliance in 2011 and 2012, just 93 were brought up to code, according to the audit. It said Oakland shelled out more than $170,000 to bring those properties up to code, but recouped a little more than $7,500.

Fire officials disagreed with aspects of the audit, saying the vegetation management program had seen deep budget cuts. The Fire Department is working to implement a number of recommendations outlined by auditors, and a progress report should be out by the end of the year.

Department cut back

"Our unit used to have one supervisor and five inspectors," Vegetation Management Supervisor Vince Crudele said. "In 2011, we got hit with layoffs and we now have only myself, as the supervisor, and three inspectors."

The unit is tasked with inspecting roughly 25,000 properties, including nearly 800 vacant lots. Though they do get help from firefighters, the sheer number of inspections means the unit has to pick its battles, Crudele said.

"The city allots $100,000 (a year) from the general fund to clear vacant lots and homes, so we have to prioritize which of them gets cleared, looking at the potential impact to nearby homes," Crudele said. "You have to look at that $100,000 and where to spend it with the most benefit."

As for the property neighboring Shih on Mattis Court, Crudele said it is bordered on one side by a park and sits at the end of a cul-de-sac. As a result, it doesn't rank highest on the priority list. That does little to calm the nerves of Shih as he looks upon a hillside covered with dead wood.

"From a resources standpoint, I get it," he said. "I'm trying to have patience, but it just seems like an excuse. We just want (the property owners) to play by the same rules as everyone else."

What's not working Issue: While many in Oakland have worked hard to keep their properties up to the city's strict fire code, vacant lots are often left with large piles of highly flammable debris, residents say, despite repeated complaints. What's been done: The Oakland Fire Prevention Bureau, the agency charged with enforcing code compliance, had its staff of inspectors reduced by half due to budget cuts and does not have the manpower to inspect each of the roughly 25,000 homes in the Oakland hills. The Fire Department is working to implement a number of recommendations outlined in a report from the city auditor's office. Who's responsible: Vince Crudele, vegetation management supervisor, Oakland Fire Prevention Bureau, VCrudele@oaklandnet.com.