Ogden, UT Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Section 16-8A-6 gives Ogden's building official the power to declare a building or structure a public nuisance once an inspection turns up any of a list of dangerous conditions defined in subsection B, and to order it abated by repair, rehabilitation, demolition or removal in accordance with the procedures specified in the chapter. The list runs from structural problems like insufficient exit width, damage from fire or earthquake that leaves a building below current code strength, or a wall leaning outside the middle third of its base, to conditions like fire hazards from faulty electric wiring, gas connections or heating apparatus that the fire marshal separately determines exist, to buildings so dilapidated they become an attractive nuisance to children or a harbor for vagrants, criminals or immoral persons.

Section 16-8A-5 authorizes the building official, fire marshal, assistant fire marshals and county health officers to inspect and enforce the chapter, including a right of entry to inspect a building the official has reasonable cause to believe is unsafe. Once a building is found dangerous, section 16-8A-7 requires a written notice and order to the record owner describing the dangerous conditions, the required corrective action and permits needed, a deadline, and a warning that failure to act lets the city do the work itself and bill or lien the property.

The property owner has ten days from service to appeal; missing that window waives the right to a hearing, and failing to abate within the required time is itself a class B misdemeanor.