Hendricks County, IN Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Chapter 150's Unsafe Buildings subchapter (§§ 150.15-150.20) incorporates I.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. Section 150.17 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.

Once the Building Commissioner inspects and determines a building meets any of these conditions, § 150.15(C) declares it a public nuisance to be abated by repair, rehabilitation, demolition, or removal. Section 150.16 limits the Commissioner's discretion strictly to determining code compliance, not to imposing conditions beyond what the ordinance already prescribes. Section 150.18 requires all reconstruction, repair, or demolition work to meet the standards of the state Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission. Section 150.19 establishes a dedicated Unsafe Building Fund in the county's operating budget under I.C. 36-7-9-14 to finance enforcement.