Peoria, IL Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Sec. 5-401 declares it unlawful for any owner or agent to keep or maintain a building or structure, including mobile homes, commercial establishments, dwellings and accessory structures, in an unsafe or dangerous condition. Sec. 5-402 defines a "dangerous building" through 13 specific conditions, covering inadequate fire exits, wind/flood/fire damage that reduces structural strength, portions likely to collapse or detach, settlement that weakens wind resistance, dilapidation that creates an attractive nuisance to children, harborage for trespassers, unsanitary dwellings unfit for habitation, rodent or vermin infestation, vacant buildings left open at doors or windows, and boarded structures left covered 180 days or more that create a blighting influence.

Once a building is designated dangerous, Sec. 5-404 requires an inspector to serve notice on the owner specifying the unsafe conditions, and the owner must make the building safe or commence demolition within 15 days of that notice, with the code official able to require a structural engineer's report at the owner's expense. Sec. 5-403 authorizes the code official to demolish or repair dangerous, uncompleted or abandoned buildings, and to remove sidewalks, fences and foundations from the cleared lot. Sec. 5-407 makes the city's demolition or repair cost, including attorney's fees, a superior lien on the property, recoverable through foreclosure within three years or through a personal judgment action if unpaid within 15 days of the lien notice.

Separately, Sec. 5-408 declares unsafe, dilapidated or abandoned buildings a nuisance outright and requires open or exposed structures to be boarded with half-inch plywood under city specifications, with temporary board-ups capped at 90 days under Sec. 5-409 absent an approved extension.