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

Article V of Chapter 20 declares blighted or slum structures a public nuisance because they create health hazards, attractive nuisances and economic harm to neighboring property. Section 20-53(a) requires the certified building official to find at least one of eleven listed conditions before determining blight: a structure so damaged, decayed, dilapidated, unsanitary or vermin-infested that it is a serious hazard; inadequate light, ventilation or sanitation; structural defects like listing or buckling walls, overloaded floors or roofs, fire or wind damage, unfitness for human habitation, inadequate fire egress, or parts likely to fall and injure the public; being vacant and insufficiently secured against trespassers; or being untended, unkempt, obsolete or abandoned.

A parallel slum determination under section 20-53(b) is made by the director of code compliance and adds frequent drug-related or illegal activity due to the property's unsecured condition as its own qualifying factor. Section 20-52 sets the process: a code compliance officer's notice and inspection triggers a joint review with the certified building official (or the director of code compliance for slum findings) before the county proceeds. 12, with 30 days to request a hearing before the code compliance special master; failing to request or attend that hearing waives the right to a hearing and is treated as consent to demolition.