Ames, IA Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Ames Municipal Code Chapter 5, Division IV defines a dangerous building broadly: any building, shed, garage, fence or structure with defects such as insufficient exits, structural stress exceeding one and one-half times normal working stress, fire damage that leaves strength below Building Code minimums, 33 percent or more deterioration of a supporting member, or conditions that make it unfit for human habitation, a fire hazard, or an attractive nuisance abandoned more than six months (Sec. 5.401(3)). A separate, faster track covers an imminently dangerous structure, defined at Sec.

5.401(4) as any building, shed, fence or structure in danger of imminent collapse that is an immediate danger to the public or adjacent property. The Building Official, City Sanitarian and Fire Inspector are authorized under Sec. 5.402 to inspect and enforce; once a structure is found dangerous it is declared a public nuisance to be abated by repair, rehabilitation, vacation, securing against entry, demolition or removal, and an imminently dangerous structure can go straight to summary abatement with no advance notice to the owner. Sec.

5.403 requires the Building Official to post a Danger, Unsafe or Unfit Structure placard and serve the owner and occupants written notice describing the defects, a vacate deadline, required corrective work and a submittal date for any structural engineer's report; unwillingness to obtain that report lets the City hire its own engineer and bill the owner. If the owner does not comply, the Building Official reports the failure to the Building Board of Appeals, City Manager and City Council, who can order demolition or abatement and assess the cost against the property as a special assessment (Sec.

5.403(2)(f)-(g)). The record owner at the time the order issues stays liable for those costs even after selling the property. Notice is also filed with the county recorder.