Burlington, NC Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Section 14-20(a) of the Burlington Code of Ordinances lets the code enforcement administrator determine a building unfit for human habitation on findings that include structural listing or buckling beyond a third of its base, thirty-three percent or more deterioration of supporting members, inadequate egress in a fire, and dilapidation, decay, insanitation or disrepair likely to cause sickness or injury to occupants or the public. Subsection (b) adds a numeric floor: irrespective of the specific findings above, the administrator can find a residential building unfit if it contains more than five separate types of violations of the minimum housing standards in Section 14-10.

Once that finding issues, Section 14-21 requires a complaint and administrative hearing before an order to repair, vacate, or demolish is served, and Section 14-25 requires city council to adopt an authorizing ordinance, recorded with the Alamance County Register of Deeds, before the administrator can actually repair, vacate or demolish an unresponsive owner's property. Section 14-35(k) makes a violation of Section 14-20 itself a Class 3 misdemeanor, punishable by a fifty-dollar fine per day or up to thirty days' imprisonment, with each day of continued violation a separate offense; Section 14-35(i) separately imposes a one-hundred-dollar civil penalty for the first day an owner fails to comply with a repair, vacate or securing order, running upward for each additional day.