West Hartford, CT Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Section 105-56 is West Hartford's blight-abatement backstop inside Chapter 105, the Housing and Property Maintenance Code. The Director of Health must declare a premises unfit for human habitation when it meets any of three tests and the defect creates a hazard to health, safety or welfare: the property is damaged, decayed, dilapidated, unsanitary, unsafe, vermin-infested or carries hazardous levels of lead-based paint or another substance; it lacks basic illumination, ventilation, plumbing, electrical, heating or sanitation facilities; or its general condition is unsanitary, unsafe or unhealthful.

Subsection A(4) also cross-references specific numeric violations, of §§ 105-19B, 105-30A, 105-31 or 105-41B, as automatic grounds. Once the Director makes the declaration, § 105-56B requires placarding the property and, if it is occupied, ordering it vacated within a window the code sets at not less than 24 hours nor more than 10 days. The Director can then order utilities disconnected under Subsection D, and the owner must board up the vacated structure under Subsection E. No one may use the property again, or remove the placard, until the Director rescinds the designation and issues written approval under Subsections F and G; defacing or removing the placard without that approval is itself a violation under Subsection H.

If the condition is displacing a tenant, § 105-56C makes the owner liable for the Town's relocation payments to that tenant and lets the Director place a municipal-tax-priority lien on the owner's real property to recover them. An owner who disagrees with the declaration can request a hearing before the Housing Code Appeals Board, which under § 105-58 is the Zoning Board of Appeals, though filing an appeal does not stay the vacate order.