Stratford, CT Code Violation Reporting: Common Violations (2026)

Stratford Code § 120-19 is the Town's list of conditions specifically declared to be public nuisances. Subsection A covers barns or stables, hogpens, chicken yards or manure piles, or accumulations of organic material, kept so as to be a breeding place for flies. Subsection B covers stagnant water likely to afford breeding places for mosquitoes within a residential district or within 1,000 feet of one. Subsection C covers buildings or parts of buildings in dilapidated or filthy condition that endanger the lives or health of persons living in the vicinity. Subsection D covers any manufacturing or processing plant or other place of business generating offensive or deleterious odors, gases, smoke, deposits, dust or exhalations. Subsection E covers the accumulation of any material in which mosquito or fly larvae breed. Subsection F, added 4-9-1984, covers any obnoxious weed as defined in § 214-2 of the Town Code.

The Director of Health runs the process. Under § 120-17, on information of a nuisance or pollution in the Town, or when it comes to his attention, the Director investigates within a reasonable time and, on finding that it exists, issues a written order for abatement. Section 120-18 requires the order to specify the nature of the nuisance or pollution and the time within which abatement or discontinuance must be accomplished. If the order is not complied with in that time, the facts are submitted to the prosecuting authority.

The same chapter's housing article adds everyday duties that generate complaints. Owners of dwellings with two or more units keep shared or public areas clean and sanitary (§ 120-20), and every occupant keeps the occupied part of the dwelling and premises clean and sanitary (§ 120-21). Occupants dispose of garbage and organic waste that could feed rodents in garbage facilities or containers (§ 120-22). Extermination duties for insects and rodents fall on the occupant or the owner depending on the extent of infestation (§ 120-24). Anyone reporting a problem goes to the Board of Health with a name and address (§ 120-4).