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

Under Sec. 1-4-120 of the Minimum Housing Code, a report of a substandard dwelling reaches the county's public officer, a code enforcement official designated by the county manager, in one of three ways. The officer can act on his own inspection findings. A public authority, defined in the code as the county housing authority or an officer over a health, fire or building department, can file a petition on its own. Or, for a renter-occupied dwelling, at least five residents of the county can jointly file a petition, even if none of them lives there, describing conditions that fall short of the minimum standards in Article IV.

A tenant reporting their own unit instead uses the separate occupant-complaint route in Sec. 1-4-120(a)(2)(c). Once a report is received, the public officer must investigate the dwelling, and if it doesn't meet minimum standards, serve the owner with a written complaint stating the charges and setting a hearing between 10 and 30 days later (Sec. 1-4-121). At least one person who signed the petition gets notice of that hearing and can testify. If the officer orders repairs and the owner does nothing, the case moves to enforcement under Sec.

1-4-125. This filing route covers unincorporated Brunswick County; a substandard dwelling inside Leland, Southport, Oak Island, Shallotte or another incorporated town has to be reported to that town's own code enforcement department instead.