Dangerous Structures

What This Article Covers

  • Overview
  • What counts as a dangerous structure
  • Standards for ordering repair, vacation or demolition
  • Dangerous structures as public nuisances
  • Responsibilities of city officials and their designated representatives
  • Fire department responsibilities
  • Police department responsibilities
  • Role of the Building Advisory and Appeals Board
  • City attorney responsibilities
  • Emergencies
  • Serving notice on an owner who lives outside the city
  • Administrative liability
  • Violations
  • Asking a district court to review a decision, and the deadline to file
  • Reserved sections

Article III: Dangerous Structures

What counts as a dangerous structure

A building or other structure is treated as a "dangerous structure" when it has any of the defects listed below and the defect is serious enough to endanger the occupants or the general public, whether to their lives, their health, their property or their safety.

  1. Doors, aisles, hallways, stairs or other exit routes are too narrow, too small or laid out in a way that would keep people from getting out safely during a fire or other emergency.
  2. The floor or tread of an exit route is warped, worn, loose, torn or otherwise in such poor shape that occupants could not count on it to escape safely in a fire or panic.
  3. The combined dead and live loads on any material, member or part of the structure produce stresses greater than one and a half times what the applicable building code permits for comparable new construction.
  4. Fire, earthquake, wind, flood or some other event has damaged part of the structure so badly that its strength or stability is noticeably lower than it was beforehand and now falls short of code minimums for comparable new buildings.
  5. A part, member or attached feature is likely to give way, come loose, fall or collapse and could hurt someone or damage property when it does.
  6. Some part of the building, or a member, attachment or decorative element on its exterior, lacks the strength or stability, or is not anchored or fastened well enough, to resist half the wind pressure the building code sets for comparable new buildings without going over the allowed working stresses.
  7. Part of the structure has racked, warped, buckled or settled to the point that its walls or other structural parts resist wind or earthquakes far less than new construction of the same kind is required to.
  8. All or part of the building is likely to collapse because of:
    • dilapidation, deterioration or decay;
    • poor construction;
    • removal, shifting or instability of the ground the building depends on for support;
    • a foundation that has deteriorated, decayed or is otherwise inadequate; or
    • any other cause.
  9. For whatever reason, all or part of the structure is plainly unsafe for the use it is being put to.
  10. Exterior walls or other vertical structural members lean, list or buckle so far that a plumb line dropped through the center of gravity lands outside the middle third of the base.
  11. Leaving the foundation aside, the structure shows damage or deterioration of 33 percent or more in its supporting members, or of 50 percent in its nonsupporting members, enclosing or outer walls, or coverings.
  12. Damage from fire, wind, earthquake or flood, or general dilapidation, has left the structure in a condition where it:
    • draws children in as an attractive nuisance;
    • gives shelter to vagrants or people engaged in crime or immoral conduct; or
    • lets people use it as a place to commit unlawful or immoral acts.
  13. The structure was built, exists or is kept in a way that breaks a specific requirement or prohibition found in the city's building regulations, in its building or housing codes, or in any state law or local ordinance dealing with the condition, location or construction of buildings.
  14. Whether or not it was legally built, any nonsupporting part has under 50 percent, or any supporting part has under 66 percent, of the strength, fire resistance or weather resistance the law demands of a new building with the same floor area, height and occupancy at that location.
  15. A structure used or intended as a dwelling is found by the responsible city officer to be unsanitary, unfit to live in, or likely to make people sick, due to poor upkeep, dilapidation, decay, damage, faulty construction or layout, insufficient light, ventilation or sanitation, or any other reason.
  16. The responsible city officer determines that the structure is a fire hazard because it is obsolete, run down, deteriorated or damaged, has inadequate exits or too little fire-resistive construction, has faulty wiring, gas lines or heating equipment, or for some other reason.
  17. The structure's condition amounts to a public nuisance as recognized by common law or in equity.
  18. Part of a building is left standing on a lot after the rest has been torn down or destroyed, or a building has sat abandoned for longer than six months, so that it has become an attractive nuisance or a danger to the public.

Standards for repair, vacation or demolition

The responsible city officer or a designee, together with the Building Advisory and Appeals Board, applies these standards in substance when deciding whether a dangerous structure should be repaired, vacated or demolished:

  1. If the structure can reasonably be fixed so that it no longer violates this article, the order will be to repair it.
  2. If the structure's condition puts its occupants at risk, whether to their health, safety, morals or general welfare, the order will be to vacate it.
  3. The responsible city official may order demolition when a dangerous structure is damaged, decayed or deteriorated by 50 percent or more of the value assigned by the appraisal district; when neglect has dropped its worth to half or less of that appraised value; or when repairs would cost more than half the appraised value. Demolition is required whenever a structure cannot be repaired enough to bring it into compliance with this article or to make it safe, and whenever a dangerous structure is a fire hazard that exists or was built in violation of this Code, a city ordinance or a state statute.

Dangerous structures are public nuisances

Every dangerous structure that falls under this article is declared a public nuisance. Each one must be repaired, vacated or demolished through the procedures this article lays out.

Responsibilities of city officials and their representatives

The responsible city official, or that official's authorized representatives, will:

  1. As they see fit, inspect or arrange for inspection of public buildings, schools, halls, churches, theaters, hotels, apartment buildings, and commercial, manufacturing and loft buildings to find out whether any of them are dangerous structures under this article.
  2. Inspect any building, wall or structure named in a complaint alleging that it does or may violate this article.
  3. Inspect any building, wall or structure that the city's fire or police department reports as probably violating this article.
  4. Inspect buildings and structures across the city to decide whether they meet this article's definition of a dangerous structure.
  5. Report each building or structure found to be dangerous to the Building Advisory and Appeals Board. Once the board gives authorization, send written notice to the owner, occupant, lessee, mortgagee, agent and anyone else with an interest in the property, as identified in the county clerk's land records or the appraisal district's records. The notice will state that:
    • the owner must vacate, repair or demolish the structure as the notice and this Code require;
    • the occupant or lessee must move out, or may have the structure repaired as the notice directs and remain in possession; and
    • a mortgagee, agent or other person with a recorded interest may, at their own risk, repair, vacate or demolish the structure or arrange for that work.
    Anyone told to repair, vacate or demolish a building will be allowed a reasonable period to finish the work, not longer than 30 days.
  6. State in the notice the date, time and location of the board meeting, and invite the person to attend and explain to the board why the action the city is requesting is unnecessary or should not happen.
  7. Let the chair of the Building Advisory and Appeals Board know about any failure to follow the notice.
  8. Attend every hearing the board holds and testify about the condition of the dangerous structures being considered.
  9. Once the board authorizes it, post the following placard on each dangerous structure:

"Enforcement officials of the City of Fredville, or someone authorized to act for them, have found this building to be a dangerous structure. This placard must stay in place until the building is repaired, vacated or demolished as required by the notice sent to its owner, occupant, lessee, mortgagee or agent and to every other person whose interest in the property appears in the county clerk's land records. Taking this placard down before the notice has been satisfied is against the law."

Fire department responsibilities

Fire department employees are required to send a written report to the responsible city official about any building or structure they believe may be a dangerous structure under this article.

The remaining sections of the article, covering police department duties, the board, the city attorney, emergencies, notice to absent owners, liability, violations and court review, appear in the Fredville Code of Ordinances.

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