Bowling Green, KY Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)

Sec. 27-3.01 adopts the International Property Maintenance Code, current edition, as the City's baseline habitability standard, amended and enforced through Bowling Green's own Code Enforcement and Nuisance Board rather than the IPMC's stock appeal process. Sec. 27-3.02 states the purpose plainly: this subchapter governs the condition and maintenance of every property, building and structure in the City, setting standards for utilities, facilities and other conditions needed to keep structures safe, sanitary and fit for occupation and use, and to keep premises clean and sanitary. It also covers condemning buildings unfit for human occupancy, sets demolition procedures for those structures, and declares public and private nuisances while fixing responsibility on owners, operators and occupants, backed by civil penalties.

Layered on top of that general standard is a rental-specific amendment: Sec. 27-4.09 rewrites IPMC Section 602.3 so that any owner or operator of a building who rents, leases or lets one or more dwelling units or sleeping units must supply heat during the period from October 15 through April 30 each year, regardless of the general IPMC heating trigger. A landlord who fails to provide heat during that window, or who otherwise lets a rental fall out of the safe-and-sanitary standard in Sec. 27-3.02, is subject to the chapter's nuisance and Property Maintenance Code enforcement mechanisms, including the civil penalty schedule and the Code Enforcement and Nuisance Board's abatement authority.