Municipalities enforce building, housing and nuisance codes through administrative and judicial processes. The procedural requirements are what determine whether the enforcement survives challenge.
Notice of violation. Must identify the property, the code provision, the condition, the required correction and the compliance deadline, and be served in the manner the ordinance requires on owners and, where applicable, occupants and lienholders.
Hearing. An opportunity to be heard before an impartial decision-maker before penalties or abatement, except in genuine emergencies. Emergency abatement without prior hearing requires a genuine imminent hazard and a prompt post-deprivation hearing.
Inspections. Entry onto private property for inspection generally requires consent or an administrative warrant. Conditioning a licence on consent to warrantless inspection is constitutionally fraught.
Abatement and cost recovery. Where the municipality abates, costs may usually be assessed against the property and collected on the tax roll, following the notice procedure the statute prescribes.
Demolition of dangerous structures requires heightened process — findings, notice to all interests of record, an opportunity to repair, and a right of appeal.
Records. Photographs with dates, inspector notes, service proofs and the hearing record are the file that supports the assessment years later when the property changes hands.