Hendricks County, IN Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)
Key Facts
- Governing law
- I.C. 36-7-9, County Unsafe Building Law
- Enforcing officer
- County Building Commissioner
- Remedy
- Repair, rehabilitation, demolition, or removal
- Funding
- Unsafe Building Fund, § 150.19
- Penalty
- Class C infraction per day, § 150.20
- Abandonment trigger
- Vacant over six months = attractive nuisance
Summary
Hendricks County enforces its County Unsafe Building Law under I.C. 36-7-9, declaring any structure meeting the code's unsafe-building criteria a public nuisance. The Building Commissioner orders repair, rehabilitation, demolition, or removal, funded through a dedicated Unsafe Building Fund.
All buildings, or portions thereof, within the county which are determined, after inspection by the Building Commissioner, to be unsafe, as defined in § 150.17, are hereby declared to be public nuisances, and shall be abated by repair, rehabilitation, demolition, or removal.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: 2025 S-3: Supplement contains: Local legislation current through Ord. 2024-50, passed 12-10-2024; and State law current through Indiana Legislative Service, 2025 Acts, Pamphlet No. 3).
Full Breakdown
C. 36-7-9-1 through 36-7-9-28 by reference as the county's operating framework for inspecting, repairing, and removing unsafe buildings; where the county code conflicts with the state statute, the state statute controls. 17 defines UNSAFE BUILDING through a 17-item list of structural and exit hazards, including exit passageways too narrow to allow safe egress in a fire, stress loads exceeding one and one-half times allowable working stress, fire or flood damage that leaves structural strength below new-construction minimums, and portions of a demolished building left on site or a structure abandoned more than six months so as to become an attractive nuisance.
15(C) declares it a public nuisance to be abated by repair, rehabilitation, demolition, or removal. 16 limits the Commissioner's discretion strictly to determining code compliance, not to imposing conditions beyond what the ordinance already prescribes. 18 requires all reconstruction, repair, or demolition work to meet the standards of the state Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission. C. 36-7-9-14 to finance enforcement.
Violations & Fines
Under § 150.20, any owner, lessee, sublessee, or occupant who erects, alters, repairs, moves, removes, demolishes, or maintains a building contrary to the subchapter or to a Building Commissioner order commits a Class C infraction for each day the violation continues, and the same conduct also violates I.C. 36-7-9-28.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a building "unsafe" under Hendricks County's code?
Who decides a building is unsafe in the county?
What happens if an owner ignores a Commissioner's order?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Hendricks County
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