Alachua County, FL Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Article V of Chapter 74 (Nuisances) governs blighted and dangerous property in unincorporated Alachua County. 5 of the 2021 International Property Maintenance Code, while 'hazardous lands' cover occupied or vacant land posing a danger from fire hazards, unsanitary conditions, unprotected chemicals or explosives, noxious odors, or trash and debris attracting vermin. 29 makes it unlawful for any owner to create, keep, maintain, or allow either condition to exist. 30 sets the standards enforcing officials must follow: the owner of a dangerous structure gets the option to demolish or repair it; a structure dangerous to occupant health or safety is condemned as unfit for habitation, placarded, and ordered vacated, with detailed board-and-seal specifications (three-eighths-inch plywood, galvanized nails spaced no more than 12 inches apart) for securing it; and hazardous land conditions must be abated by the means least expensive and least detrimental to the owner.

30(4) authorizes the certified building official to order demolition or removal whenever the cost of restoring a damaged, deteriorated, or defective structure would exceed 50 percent of its assessed value, and if the owner does not act within 30 calendar days and no appeal is filed, the official can carry out the demolition. 31 gives enforcing officials the right to enter and inspect land and structures to determine compliance, on complaint or reasonable cause. 32(b) requires the county to first notify the record owner in writing and demand the condition be remedied, unless the danger is an imminent public-safety emergency, in which case the County Manager may authorize immediate abatement under Article IV's emergency-nuisance process. 33, including through a non-ad valorem special assessment lien on the property.