James City County, VA Code Violation Reporting: Response Times (2026)

Section 10-5(b) sets the response clock that follows a confirmed violation notice under section 10-5(a). If ten days pass after the notice is served and the owner still has not corrected the condition, the county administrator or a designee is authorized to have the necessary work done, including cutting grass, weeds, running bamboo or other foreign growth, to abate any nuisance or health and safety hazard on the property. The section makes the ten-day period a hard trigger rather than a target: it says that if ten days after service of the notice the directive has not been complied with, the county shall proceed with the abatement work.

The owner bears the cost. All expenses the county incurs abating the violation are chargeable to the property owner and collected the same way the county collects taxes and levies; any amount that is not collected becomes a lien against the property, and the administrator's designee may record documents in the county's real estate records to give notice of that lien. This response-time structure applies to any violation of section 10-4's property-maintenance duties, covering everything from uncollected garbage and litter to uncut weeds and running bamboo, and it operates independently of the separate civil and criminal penalties available under section 10-7.