Property Maintenance Program
Property Maintenance Codes are established in municipalities that have reached a mature state of development.
Property Maintenance Codes require either or both external and internal maintenance of properties to certain standards,
the purpose being to prevent degradation of the existing building stock. It also guarantees that a uniform and measurable yardstick
is used in the inspection process. There are two methods commonly used in this enforcement process: Complaint method and Neighborhood Method.
Complaint Method
The code officials are expected to center their efforts primarily on compliance.
This approach satisfies the persons making the complaints and helps improve some of the municipality’s substandard buildings.
However, it does little to bring about general improvement in any section of the community.
Neighborhood Method
Area-wide or neighborhood inspections, on the other hand involve systemic basement –to-roof ,
building to building, block-by-block inspections of all properties within a specific area and includes all the follow-up work required to bring all
substandard buildings up to code within a reasonable period of time. By putting major emphasis on this type of effort, instead of on the complaint oriented approach,
blight is checked and an overall upgrade is achieved in one portion of the community after another.
Thus, this type of systematic inspection is both longer lasting and a much more effective method of improving and stabilizing property
values than the traditional complaint method.
Experience
No two municipalities are alike and not all municipalities have the pressure of blighted structures.
It is prudent to put a process in place should any structure need attention due to maintenance issues.
BIU has experienced code enforcement official to complement your existing personnel.
