James City County, VA Code Violation Reporting: How to Report (2026)

Section 10-5(a) gives any responsible person standing to complain that a property is violating the maintenance duties in section 10-4, which cover accumulations of garbage, trash, litter, refuse or clutter and uncut grass, weeds or running bamboo. Once a complaint is received, the county administrator or a designee is required to investigate the conditions on the property; the statute does not limit when that investigation can happen, stating it may occur at any time. If the investigation confirms the owner is in violation of section 10-4, the administrator's designee must direct the owner in writing to correct the condition, and that notice must state a compliance deadline of not more than ten days.

In practice, residents route these complaints to James City County's Code Compliance staff within Community Development, since that office administers property-maintenance enforcement for the county outside the independent City of Williamsburg. A complaint does not have to come from an adjoining property owner, only a responsible person, and it opens a mandatory investigation rather than a discretionary one, since the statute directs that the administrator shall investigate. The complaint-and-notice sequence in section 10-5(a) is the trigger for the stronger enforcement tools in section 10-5(b): county abatement and cost recovery if the ten-day notice period passes without correction, and the civil and criminal penalties in section 10-7 once a violation is confirmed.