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

Section 8-164 adopts the 2012 edition of the International Property Maintenance Code, with three copies kept on file in the city clerk-treasurer's office. The code regulates conditions and maintenance of all property, buildings and structures, provides the standards for supplied utilities and facilities and other physical things and conditions essential to ensure that structures are safe, sanitary and fit for occupation and use, provides for condemnation and demolition of buildings unfit for human occupancy, and provides for permits and fees. The detailed standards sit in that adopted text, which the Georgetown Code incorporates rather than reproduces.

Section 8-165 customizes the model code. Under its section 103.1, the code enforcement board and the city's code enforcement officers are responsible for enforcement. Notice, form, service, appeals and abatement follow the procedures in Chapter 2, Article VI. Under its section 108.2, closing a vacant structure carries an administrative fee of $100.00 in addition to the cost of closing, secured by a lien on the real estate. Sections 109.5 and 110.3 carry the same $100.00 fee into emergency work and demolition costs, recoverable by proceedings that include a lien against the owner.

Section 26-2 adds a nuisance route. A dwelling, meaning any part of a building or its premises used as a place of residence or for sleeping, is unfit for human habitation when it is dangerous or detrimental to life or health because of want of repair, defects in drainage, plumbing, lighting, ventilation or construction, infection with contagious disease, or an unsanitary condition likely to cause sickness among occupants. Failure to maintain lawfully required water, sewer, or a source of heat is conclusive evidence of unfitness for any dwelling, and in a dwelling used for residential rental, failure to maintain required electrical service is conclusive evidence as well.