Stafford County, VA Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Section 6-1 of the Code of the County of Stafford lets the county act against any dangerous structure on private land. If a building, wall or other structure might endanger public health or safety, the owner must remove, repair or secure it once notified in writing. The county mails notice by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, and publishes it once a week for two successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation. The clock for action runs thirty days from the later of the return of the receipt or the newspaper publication.

That window shrinks to seven days when the building official states in the notice that the structure poses a significant threat to public safety, letting the county act fast to keep people out. If the owner still has not acted when the notice period runs, the county administrator or a designee can have the building, wall or structure removed, repaired or secured directly and bill the owner for every dollar the work cost. An owner who does not pay that bill sees it added to the property tax bill and collected the same way real estate taxes are collected, giving the county a lien-backed way to recover its costs without going to court first.

The ordinance traces to the 1979 Code and has been amended three times, most recently in 2019. It cross-references the sign code's separate removal process for defective signs at Section 28-253.