Burien, WA Property Maintenance: Vacant Lot Maintenance (2026)

The City of Burien reaches vacant and unoccupied land through named nuisance conditions in § 8.45.020(5)(c). The clause most tied to empty lots is (v), attractive nuisances. It covers any attractive nuisance that could prove detrimental to children, whether in or on a building, on the premises of a building, or upon an unoccupied lot, that is left exposed or accessible to children. The printed examples are unused or abandoned refrigerators, freezers or other large appliances, abandoned motor vehicles, structurally unsound or unsafe fences or edifices, unsecured or abandoned excavations, pits, wells, cisterns, storage tanks or shafts, and any lumber, trash, debris or vegetation that could prove a hazard for minors.

Clause (viii), illegal dumping, prohibits dumping of any type by any person on public or private property not registered as a legal dump site. Clause (i) reaches premises containing trash or abandoned materials, and clause (vii) covers noxious or toxic weeds, tall grass that can be a fire hazard, and nonnative herbaceous plants over 12 inches in height. The vegetation clause does not exempt private land, but it does exempt Burien-owned property, critical areas and stormwater facilities.

Owner liability is the key point for vacant land. Section 1.15.020 defines the person responsible for a violation to include the titled owner or anyone with legal control of the property, an occupant, a mortgagee that has filed a foreclosure action until title transfers, and a mortgagee of property not occupied by the owner, the owner's tenant or a permitted occupant for at least 90 days. Responsibility is joint and several under § 1.15.040.

Because an absentee owner might not see the notice, § 1.15.070 allows service by posting a copy in a conspicuous place on the property, and posted service is complete on the fourteenth day after posting. The city can then abate under § 1.15.210, enter under § 1.15.220, bill costs due 30 days after the bill, and place unpaid amounts on the tax rolls as an assessment lien.