Durham, NC Rental Inspections: Inspection Programs (2026)

Article VIII of the Durham City Code, 'Periodic Inspection of Rental Dwellings,' gives the city two separate tracks for getting into rental units without an individual complaint. Section 10-361 records the council's finding that most housing-code violations originate in dwellings that are not owner-occupied, which is the legal basis for both tracks. S. 160A-424(b), the state statute governing municipal periodic-inspection programs. ' Owner-occupied homes inside a designated area are not swept in. This is distinct from the reasonable-cause track in Sec. 10-362, which requires an individual trigger, three verified violations in 12 months, a substandard-conditions complaint, actual knowledge of an unsafe condition, or a visible exterior violation, before a specific building is enrolled.

Under Sec. 10-363, by contrast, every rental unit within a council-designated area is inspected as a matter of course. Violations turned up during either kind of inspection are enforced through the housing code in chapter 10, article VI, which the definitions section (Sec. ' Article VIII itself sets no separate penalty; enforcement runs through the underlying housing code's administrator orders and appeal process.