(a) Conditions Conducive to Harboring Vermin or Rodents. The following conditions are found and declared to be conducive to harboring vermin or rodents and as such are hereby declared to be nuisances and prohibited:
(1) Broken, cracked or defective ceilings, walls, floors or foundations, in which are holes or cracks of a size sufficient to permit vermin or rodents to pass through;
(2) Materials, including rubbish, piled, stored or kept on the premises or stored behind garages or other auxiliary buildings, into, among or under which, vermin or rodents have burrowed or may burrow;
(3) Buildings, foundations of buildings, appurtenances to buildings, floors, walks or driveways under which vermin or rodents have burrowed;
(4) Underground garbage containers around or under which vermin or rodents have burrowed;
(5) Portable buildings, boxes, crates and materials, including rubbish, piled, stored or kept so that they rest directly on the ground surface or less than eight inches above such surface;
(6) Rubbish or garbage containers resting directly on the ground surface or less than eight inches above such surface or within six feet of any building;
(7) Garbage containers without watertight tops, sides and bottoms, or without tightly fitting tops, or around or under which vermin or rodents have burrowed or may burrow;
(8) Concrete or wooden garage floors so broken that vermin or rodents can burrow or have burrowed under them;
(9) Feeding of wild animals, birds or other wildlife other than in suitable containers for food, elevated at least forty-eight inches above the ground level.
(b) Abatement of Nuisance Due to Vermin or Rodents. The permitting of any premises to become infested with vermin or rodents is declared to be a nuisance and unlawful. No owner, occupant or person in charge or control of any premises shall cause or knowingly permit such premises to become or to remain infested with vermin or rodents. No owner, lessee or occupant of any premises in or upon which any condition prohibited in subsection (a) hereof exists shall fail or refuse to abate the same within seven days after being notified to do so as provided in subsection (c) hereof.
(c) Notice to Abate. The notice referred to in subsection (b) hereof shall be in writing, shall bear the date of issuance and shall be signed by the Building Commissioner or by a deputy designated by him. Any such notice may be served as is provided for service of summons in civil actions or by delivery to such person or to the premises affected by it by an employee of the Division of Building, Engineering and Inspection or a member of the Police Division. Every such notice shall describe by street and number the premises which it purports to cover and shall state with as great particularity as possible under the circumstances the location and nature of the condition which gives rise to such nuisance.
(d) Knowledge Required To Constitute Offense. In the enforcement of this section, no owner not in actual occupation of any property shall be held guilty of a violation of this section by reason of any of the acts or omissions specified in subsection (a) hereof, unless it is shown that one or more of the acts or omissions thereby prohibited was done with his knowledge. A continuance of any such prohibited condition for more than twenty days after notice thereof by the occupant of such premises, or without such notice where a caretaker, janitor, agent or other representative of a nonoccupying owner occupies any part of such premises, shall be presumptive evidence of such knowledge on the part of the owner.
(e) Remedy of City. If the owner, lessee or occupant of any premises in the City fails or refuses, within seven days after receiving any notice hereinabove provided for, to abate the nuisance described in such notice, the same may be abated by the City, through its employees and under the direction of the Building Commissioner. The cost of abating any such nuisance shall be charged to the owner of the property affected and in default of payment shall be assessed against such property. All charges and assessments hereunder shall as to forms, notices, times, payments, collections and all other respects be similar to that provided for weed removal as specified in Section 551.03
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All charges and assessments made under authority of this section are in addition to any penalty that may be imposed under the provisions of this chapter.
(Ord. 80-1973. Passed 12-10-73.)
(f) Whoever violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the third degree.