Mason County, WA Code Violation Reporting: Common Violations (2026)

Mason County's enforcement chapter treats certain violations as recurring problems rather than one-time events. Under § 15.13.020(a), non-conforming structures and other non-conforming land modifications are a continuing violation, and every day that condition exists counts as a separate violation; the same subsection makes it unlawful to own, use, control, maintain or possess any part of a premises that was built, equipped, maintained or used contrary to the codes listed in MCC § 15.03.005, which covers the Sanitary Code, Environmental Policy and Resource Ordinance, Forest Practices, Bridges and Roads, Utilities, Buildings and Construction, Subdivisions and Zoning titles.

Structures or activities built or conducted without a required permit do not gain vested rights and must be brought up to current permit standards, not the standards in effect when the work was done. Section 15.13.020(c) escalates the most serious cases to a misdemeanor: any private party who intentionally, recklessly or negligently violates an applicable code, including disregarding a notice and order, a notice of civil violation, a warning notice, a stop work order, a do-not-occupy order or a hearing examiner's order, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to five hundred dollars, imprisonment of up to ninety days, or both, with each day of continuing violation charged separately.

Short of a criminal charge, § 15.13.020(d) authorizes the review authority to issue civil infraction tickets, up to two hundred fifty dollars for a first violation and up to five hundred dollars for a second or later violation of the same code within two years, decided in district court by a preponderance of the evidence.