Asheville, NC Code Violation Reporting: How to Report (2026)

Under Sec. 4-217(a) of the Asheville Code of Ordinances, a code complaint against an unfit dwelling can be triggered three ways: a petition or complaint filed by a public authority, a petition or complaint signed by at least five residents of the city, or the code enforcement officer acting on his own motion after observing a problem. Once a qualifying complaint comes in, the officer must run a preliminary investigation, and if that investigation discloses a basis for the charges, the officer issues a formal complaint and has it served on the owner and any parties in interest in the dwelling.

The written complaint must list the specific Code violations found and give notice that a hearing will be held before the housing code coordinator. Before even reaching the formal complaint stage, Sec. 4-217(a)(2) lets the code enforcement officer instead serve the property owner or the owner's agent with a violation notice setting a designated date to fix the problem, which is the more common first step for less serious cases. All complaints and hearing notices can be recorded as a notice of lis pendens in the office of the Clerk of Superior Court for Buncombe County, putting the filing on the public record tied to the property.

The complaint process applies to dwellings alleged to be unfit for human habitation under the Code's deteriorated or dilapidated standards defined elsewhere in Article VII.