MGL 143 6-10 139 1-3A UnsafeCHAPTER 143. INSPECTION AND REGULATION OF, AND LICENSES FOR, BUILDINGS,
ELEVATORS AND CINEMATOGRAPHS
INSPECTION OF BUILDINGS
Chapter 143: Section 6. Local inspector; duties
Section 6. The local inspector, immediately upon being informed by report or otherwise that a
building or other structure or anything attached thereto or connected therewith in that city or
town is dangerous to life or limb or that any building in that city or town is unused, uninhabited
or abandoned, and open to the weather, shall inspect the same; and he shall forthwith in writing
notify the owner, lessee or mortgagee in possession to remove it or make it safe if it appears to
him to be dangerous, or to make it secure if it is unused, uninhabited or abandoned and open to
the weather. If it appears that such structure would be especially unsafe in case of fire, it shall
be deemed dangerous within the meaning hereof, and the local inspector may affix in a
conspicuous place upon its exterior walls a notice of its dangerous condition, which shall not be
removed or defaced without authority from him. Upon such notice under either of the preceding
sentences, the owner, lessee or mortgagee in possession shall furnish a floor plan of such
building or other structure to the chiefs of the fire and police departments of the city or town.
Section 7 Removal or making structure safe; putting up fence
Section 7. Any person so notified shall be allowed until twelve o’clock noon of the day following
the service of the notice in which to begin to remove such structure or make it safe, or to make it
secure, and he shall employ sufficient labor speedily to make it safe or remove it or to make it
secure; but if the public safety so requires and if the aldermen or selectmen so order, the
inspector of buildings may immediately enter upon the premises with the necessary workmen
and assistants and cause such unsafe structure to be made safe or taken down without delay,
and a proper fence put up for the protection of passers-by, or to be made secure. If such a
building or structure is taken down or removed, the lot shall be levelled to uniform grade by a
proper sanitary fill to cover any cellar or foundation hole and any rubble not removed.
Section 8 Failure to remove or make structure safe; survey board; survey; Report
Section 8. If an owner, lessee or mortgagee in possession of such unsafe structure refuses or
neglects to comply with the requirements of such notice within the time limited, and such
structure is not made safe or taken down as therein ordered, or made secure, a careful survey
of the premises shall be made by a board consisting in a city of the city engineer, the head of
the fire department, as such term is defined in section one of chapter one hundred and forty-
eight, and one disinterested person to be appointed by the local inspector, and in a town of a
surveyor, the head of the fire department and one disinterested person to be appointed by the
local inspector. If there is no city engineer in such city or no head of the fire department in such
city or town, the mayor or selectmen shall designate one or more officers or other suitable
persons in place of the officers so named as members of said board. A written report of such
survey shall be made, and a copy thereof served on such owner, lessee or mortgagee in
possession.
Section 9 Dangerous or abandoned structures removed or made safe by local inspector;
costs; penalty; use of structure
Section 9. If such report declares such structure to be dangerous or to be unused, uninhabited
or abandoned, and open to the weather, and if the owner, lessee or mortgagee in possession
continues such refusal or neglect, the local inspector shall cause it to be made safe or taken
down or to be made secure, and, if the public safety so requires, said local inspector may at
once enter the structure, the land on which it stands or the abutting land or buildings, with such
assistance as he may require, and secure or remove the same, and may remove and evict,
under the pertinent provisions of chapter two hundred thirty-nine or otherwise, any tenant or
occupant thereof, and may erect such protection for the public by proper fence or otherwise as
may be necessary, and for this purpose may close a public highway. In the case of such
demolition, the local inspector shall cause such lot to be levelled to uniform grade by a proper
sanitary fill. The costs and charges incurred shall constitute a debt due the city or town upon
completion of the work and the rendering of an account therefor to the owner of such structure,
and shall be enforced in an action of contract, and such owner, lessee or mortgagee in
possession shall, for every day’s continuance of such refusal or neglect after being so notified,
be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars. The provisions of the second
paragraph of section three A of chapter one hundred and thirty-nine, relative to liens for such
debt and the collection of claims for such debt, shall apply to any debt referred to in this section,
except that the local inspector shall act hereunder in place of the mayor or board of selectmen.
During the time such order is in effect it shall be unlawful to use or occupy such structure or any
portion thereof for any purpose.
Section 9A Taking or injuring other property in removing dangerous structures or
making them safe
Section 9A. If, by any act done by an officer of a city or town for the purpose of making safe or
taking down any dangerous structure, any real estate other than such structure or the parcel of
land upon which it stands is taken, used or injured, any person owning an interest in such real
estate and not having an interest in such dangerous structure may recover damages for such
taking, use or injury from such city or town in a petition for the assessment thereof under
chapter seventy-nine filed in the superior court for the county in which such real estate is
situated within one year after such taking, use or injury; provided, that if such taking, use or
injury occurred not more than three years prior to the effective date of this section, said petition
may be filed not more than one year after said effective date.
Section 10 Remedy of person ordered to remove a dangerous structure or make it safe
Section 10. An owner, lessee or mortgagee in possession aggrieved by such order may have
the remedy prescribed by section two of chapter one hundred and thirty-nine; provided, that
no provision of said section two shall be construed so as to hinder, delay or prevent the local
inspector acting and proceeding under section nine; and provided, further, that this section
shall not prevent the city or town from recovering the forfeiture provided in said section nine
from the date of the service of the original notice, unless the order is annulled by the jury.
CHAPTER 139. COMMON NUISANCES
Section 1 Orders adjudging buildings, structures or vacant land to be nuisances; notice,
hearing and service of copy of order
Section 1. The aldermen or selectmen in any city or town may, after written notice to the owner
of a burnt, dilapidated or dangerous building or other structure, or his authorized agent, or to the
owner of a vacant parcel of land, and after a hearing, make and record an order adjudging it to
be a nuisance to the neighborhood, or dangerous, and prescribing its disposition, alteration or
regulation. The city or town clerk shall deliver a copy of the order to an officer qualified to serve
civil process, who shall forthwith serve an attested copy thereof in the manner prescribed in
section one hundred and twenty-four of chapter one hundred and eleven, and make return to
said clerk of his doings thereon.
Section 2 Appeal to superior court: trial by jury; costs
Section 2. A person aggrieved by such order may appeal to the superior court for the county
where such building or other structure is situated, if, within three days after the service of such
attested copy upon him, he commences a civil action in such court. Trial by jury shall be had as
in other civil causes. The jury may affirm, annul or alter such order, and the court shall render
judgment in conformity with said verdict, which shall take effect as an original order. If the order
is affirmed, the plaintiff shall pay the costs; if it is annulled, he shall recover from the town his
damages, if any, and costs; and if it is altered, the court may render such judgment as to costs
as justice shall require. All proceedings hereunder authorized by section ten of chapter one
hundred and forty-three, after issue is joined therein, shall be in order for trial and shall have
precedence over any case of a different nature pending in said court and then in order for trial.
Section 3A Demolition or removal of building or structure or securing of vacant land;
owner’s liability
Section 3A. If the owner or his authorized agent fails to comply with an order issued pursuant to
section three and the city or town demolishes or removes any burnt, dangerous or dilapidated
building or structure or secures any vacant parcel of land from a trespass, a claim for the
expense of such demolition or removal, including the cost of leveling the lot to uniform grade by
a proper sanitary fill, or securing such vacant parcel shall constitute a debt due the city or town
upon the completion of demolition, removal, or securing and the rendering of an account
therefor to the owner or his authorized agent, and shall be recoverable from such owner in an
action of contract.
Any such debt, together with interest thereon at the rate of six per cent per annum from the date
such debt becomes due, shall constitute a lien on the land upon which the structure is or was
located if a statement of claim, signed by the mayor or the board of selectmen, setting forth the
amount claimed without interest is filed, within ninety days after the debt becomes due, with the
register of deeds for record or registration, as the case may be, in the county or in the district, if
the county is divided into districts, where the land lies. Such lien shall take effect upon the filing
of the statement aforesaid and shall continue for two years from the first day of October next
following the date of such filing. If the debt for which such a lien is in effect remains unpaid when
the assessors are preparing a real estate tax list and warrant to be committed under section
fifty-three of chapter fifty-nine, the mayor or the board of selectmen, or the town collector of
taxes, if applicable under section thirty-eight A of chapter forty-one, shall certify such debt to the
assessors, who shall forthwith add such debt to the tax on the property to which it relates and
commit it with their warrant to the collector as part of such tax. If the property to which such debt
relates is tax exempt, such debt shall be committed as the tax. Upon commitment as a tax or
part of a tax, such debt shall be subject to the provisions of law relative to interest on the taxes
of which they become, or, if the property were not tax exempt would become, a part; and the
collector of taxes shall have the same powers and be subject to the same duties with respect to
such debts as in the case of annual taxes upon real estate, and the provisions of law relative to
the collection of such annual taxes, the sale or taking of land for the non-payment thereof, and
the redemption of land so sold or taken shall, except as otherwise provided, apply to such
claims. A lien under this section may be discharged by filing with the register of deeds for record
or registration, as the case may be, in the county or in the district, if the county is divided into
districts, where the land lies, a certificate from the collector of the city or town that the debt
constituting the lien, together with any interest and costs thereon, has been paid or legally
abated. All costs of recording or discharging a lien under this section shall be borne by the
owner of the property.