Wayne County, NC Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

S. S. 160A-444 to set minimum fitness standards for every dwelling used for human habitation in the unincorporated county, excluding transportable and temporary housing. Section 14-153 makes it unlawful for an owner-occupant to live in, or for anyone to let to another, a dwelling that does not meet all of the standards in §§ 14-154 through 14-158. Those standards cover four categories: structural condition under § 14-154, requiring sound walls, floors, roofs and foundations, weathertight exteriors, and no chimney defective enough to be a fire hazard; basic equipment under § 14-155, which requires a potable water connection and public or approved sewer service, code-compliant plumbing fixtures, and heating facilities capable of holding every habitable room to 68 degrees Fahrenheit at three feet above the floor during ordinary winter conditions; ventilation standards under § 14-156; and space and occupancy limits under § 14-157, which set minimum habitable floor area starting at 150 square feet for the first occupant, plus 100 square feet for each of the next three occupants and 75 square feet for every occupant after that.

The article's inspector, a county building inspector or authorized agent, determines whether a substandard dwelling is "deteriorated" (repairable at 50 percent or less of tax value) or "dilapidated" (not repairable within that cost) under the § 14-152 definitions, a distinction that drives whether repair or removal is the appropriate remedy.