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

C. Gen. §§130A and 153A, makes it unlawful for any occupant of a dwelling or dwelling unit to leave outside of a building, for longer than 72 hours, any dilapidated furniture, icebox, refrigerator, stove, other appliance, machinery, equipment, building material, or other item that is wholly or partially rusted, wrecked, junked, dismantled or inoperative, or that the health director judges a potential public health problem. A companion provision, Section 4(1)(d), requires that any abandoned or discarded icebox, refrigerator, or similar container left where children can reach it be crated, strapped, or locked so a child cannot climb inside, addressing the classic backyard-refrigerator entrapment hazard.

Section 4(1)(b) separately bars accumulating solid waste or garbage in any manner that provides food or harborage for rodents, vermin or other nuisance animals, tying junk storage directly to the county's rodent-control effort. The ordinance is enforced by the Alamance County Health Director under Section 5's criminal and civil penalty authority. Property owners who receive a notice about junked appliances or rusted equipment sitting in a yard longer than 72 hours must remove the material or bring it into compliance, such as securing an old refrigerator's door, to avoid escalation to a civil penalty assessment.