Yakima County, WA Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)
Key Facts
- Demolition threshold
- Repair cost over 50% of assessed value
- Hearing timeline
- 10 to 30 days after notice
- Placard
- 'Unsafe' placard posted on condemned structures
- Cost recovery
- Unpaid abatement costs become a property lien
- Enforcer
- Yakima County Public Services code enforcement division
Summary
Yakima County's Property Maintenance Code lets the code official declare a structure unsafe when fire hazards, structural damage or faulty construction threaten collapse, then order repair or demolition. If fixing the damage would cost more than 50% of the building's assessed value, the county can require demolition and removal instead of repair.
108.1.1 Unsafe buildings and structures. An unsafe building or structure is one that is found to be dangerous to the life, health, property or safety of the public or the occupants of the structure by not providing minimum safeguards to protect or warn occupants in the event of fire, or because such structure contains unsafe equipment or is so damaged, decayed, dilapidated, structurally unsafe or of such faulty construction or unstable foundation, that partial or complete collapse is possible. 108.6.1 Standards for demolition, repair or vacation and closure. Whenever the code enforcement official determines, that all or any portion of a building and/or premises is unfit for human habitation or other use, the code enforcement official shall order that the unfit building and/or premises or portion thereof be: 1. Repaired, or demolished and removed, if the estimated cost of repairing the conditions causing the building or structure to be unsafe or unfit for human habitation or other use exceeds fifty percent (50%) of the assessed value of the building or structure...
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: rev 4871853; v6 updated 2026-04-21; through 04-21-2026).
Full Breakdown
5 lists eighteen specific conditions that qualify, from unsafe exits and fire damage to 33 percent or more deterioration of a supporting member. 3 requires posted notice and a hearing before the code enforcement official within 30 days, but not less than 10 days, after the notice issues. 1 sets the demolition-or-repair line at cost: where repair would exceed fifty percent of the building's assessed value, the official orders it repaired and demolished or removed; at or under that threshold, repair or vacate-and-close is ordered instead.
1. 085, against the property as a lien collected with the county's property taxes. 5. Yakima County's Public Services Department code enforcement division administers the process under YCC Title 21.
Violations & Fines
Occupying or operating a placarded 'Unsafe' structure, or removing the placard without approval, carries the penalties in YCC Title 21 Chapter 21.03.020. A final abatement order the owner ignores lets the county repair, vacate, remove or demolish the building itself and bill every cost, plus relocation payments owed tenants, as a lien against the property collected with county taxes under Section 108.6.3.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a building 'unsafe' under Yakima County's code?
Can the county force a demolition instead of letting the owner repair?
Who pays if Yakima County has to demolish an abandoned building?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Yakima County
Compare Yakima County to another location·View the Washington property maintenance overview
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