Brookhaven, NY Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Chapter 88, Blighted Property Restoration, adopted in 2014, applies Town-wide to both residential and commercial property outside the Town's incorporated villages and bans anyone in control of real property from creating or maintaining a blighted property under § 88-1C. Section 88-3 defines the point factors that add up to the 100-point threshold set in § 88-2: a Town Attorney finding of a serious health or safety threat (50 points), unresolved summonses or prosecutions under specific Town chapters including zoning (50 points), attracting illegal or noxious activity under the Town's Nuisance Abatement chapter (50 points), a Fire Marshal hazard finding (50 points), and a long list of persistent unmaintained conditions: boarded or broken windows and doors (5 to 10 points each), grass 12 inches or higher (10 points), a damaged roof, gutters, siding, or chimney (5 to 10 points each), more than one unregistered vehicle (5 points) or junk vehicles (2 points each), graffiti (10 points), broken fencing or outdoor lighting (5 to 10 points), exposed electrical wiring (15 points), fire damage left unrepaired (30 points), and vermin or rodent infestation (30 points).

Once a property crosses 100 points, § 88-4 requires the Town Attorney to serve notice on the owner, and § 88-5 gives the owner at least 30 days to begin correcting the violations before the Town schedules a hearing, with the notice warning that an owner who doesn't show up and contest the finding faces the Town entering the property to remove or repair the violations and billing the cost back to the owner.