Thurston County, WA Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Section 14.22.202 of the Thurston County Code makes the abatement rule direct: all buildings or portions thereof determined dangerous after inspection by the building official "are declared to be public nuisances and shall be abated by repair, rehabilitation, demolition or removal." Section 14.22.302 defines "dangerous building" with eighteen lettered conditions, covering blocked or unsafe exits, structural stress over one and one-half times allowed working loads, fire, earthquake, wind or flood damage that cuts structural strength below code, walls that lean past the middle third of their base, thirty-three percent or more damage to supporting members, and a building abandoned for more than six months that has become an attractive nuisance or a hazard.

Once the building official determines a building is dangerous, § 14.22.401 requires a written notice and order to the record owner describing the dangerous conditions, setting a repair deadline of up to sixty days, or a vacate-and-demolish deadline on the same timeline, and warning that failure to act lets the county order the building vacated and posted, or complete the work itself and bill the owner or the property. Owners have twenty days to appeal to the hearing examiner under § 14.22.501, cut to ten days if the building is posted as an immediate hazard under § 14.22.404; missing that window waives the right to a hearing under § 14.22.502.

Violating any provision of this code is unlawful under § 14.22.203, and failing to obey a final order is a misdemeanor under § 14.22.701, with the building official authorized to prosecute or to abate the building directly and bill the property owner for the cost of repair or demolition under § 14.22.801.