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Code Violation Reporting in Yakima County, WA (2026)

3 rules for unincorporated Yakima County, Washington.

Verified from official government sources

Note: These county rules apply to unincorporated areas of Yakima County. If you live within an incorporated city, that city's own rules apply: see the city list below.

How to Report

Yakima County Code Enforcement, part of the Department of Public Services, works from written citizen complaints or referrals from other regulatory agencies under YCC § 21.02.030. The division can bypass that requirement and act immediately when building staff spot a Title 13 violation firsthand or a condition risks serious, immediate harm.

Yakima County Code Enforcement Complaint Process

Some Restrictions

Yakima County Code § 21.02.030

The Yakima County Code Enforcement Division generally responds to alleged violations of the Yakima County Codes and regulations based on written citizen complaints or referrals of potential violations from other regulatory agencies. However, if violations of the Yakima County Building Code Title 13 are observed by citizens, agencies or by Yakima County building, fire, and life safety personnel ...

Response Times

Yakima County Code Enforcement caps the correction period in a notice and order at 30 days under YCC § 21.03.010(4), but promises no fixed timeframe for opening an investigation: § 21.02.030 leaves enforcement to the county's discretion and available resources.

Yakima County Code Violation Response Timeframe

Some Restrictions

Yakima County Code § 21.03.010(4)

All notices shall specify a time frame for compliance of the violation, provided that the initial amount of time for correction shall not be longer than 30 days. A notice or order shall be issued in the event the violation is not corrected in the time period specified in the notice.

Common Violations

Yakima County Code § 6.20.020 lists the conditions residents most often report to code enforcement: polluted waterways, uncovered garbage, unsanitary animal enclosures within 300 feet of a home, and dead animals left in the open. Any of these is a declared public nuisance.

Yakima County Common Nuisance Violations

Some Restrictions

Yakima County Code § 6.20.020(11), (13)

No stables, barnyards, hogpens, corrals, feedyards, rabbit hutches or other enclosures where domestic animals or poultry are kept and situate within three hundred feet of any building occupied by humans or within three hundred feet of any highway or within three hundred feet of any human residence, shall be allowed to become foul or nauseous or offensive and any accumulation of manure or litter...

All Yakima County ordinances

See every category we cover for Yakima County: parking, noise, fences, fires, animals, pools, and more.

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