Charles County, MD Code Violation Reporting: How to Report (2026)

Chapter 85, Nuisances; Public Health, sets out the County's reporting path. Section 85-2 lists the unhealthy public nuisance conditions covered, things like accumulations of scrap, trash, garbage, broken bottles, junk vehicle parts, and grass, weeds, brush or uncultivated vegetable growth over one foot tall, plus any noncompliant condition under Chapter 3 of the International Property Maintenance Code. Under § 85-3A, the reporting mechanism is a written complaint: either landowners from the same election district or a landowners' association can send one to the County Commissioners or their designee, or the Commissioners can act on their own judgment that a § 85-2 condition has become a nuisance affecting public health and comfort.

Once triggered, the County Commissioners or their designee must issue a formal complaint to the property owner stating the charges, setting a thirty-day deadline to abate them, and giving notice that a hearing will be held before the Nuisance Abatement Board between four and thirty days after that deadline expires. The property owner and other interested parties can file an answer and appear at the hearing to testify, and the Maryland Rules of Procedure do not apply to these hearings. If the Nuisance Abatement Board finds, after notice and hearing, that a § 85-2 condition exists, it must state its findings of fact in writing to support the determination.