Code Enforcement Details

Property maintenance and code enforcement activities promote vibrant, attractive, and desirable neighborhoods; help maintain property values and the significant investments made by City residents; eliminate blight, deter crime, and support effective housing maintenance standards.  Like most communities, the City of Becker uses a complaint-based code enforcement process.  The overriding goal of enforcement is compliance, not punishment.  Residents are encouraged to take steps to comply with the ordinances on their own property before complaining against others and to discuss issues with their neighbors, when possible.  The City’s enforcement process steps in when this is not possible.  No two enforcement issues are the same.  In many instances, residents are simply unaware of the Code and correct the situation immediately.  However, in other situations, a resolution of compliance can take more time.     

When a violation is confirmed, appropriate action is taken.  Due to staff and time constraints, and extraneous circumstances outside the City’s control, it is sometimes necessary to prioritize complaints and violations.  When this happens, complaints are prioritized as follows:

1. Immediate risk to public health and safety.
2. High risk to health and safety through potential environmental impacts.
3. Work begun or actions taken without necessary permits.
4. Aesthetic and nuisance violations.   

All complaints made to the city must include the complainant’s name and contact information.  Complaints submitted anonymously will not be considered valid.  Limitations on filing a complaint related to non-safety code violations:

1. Complaint must be related to an identified residential code violation.  All alleged commercial or non-residential code violations must be initiated by the City.
2. In order to file a complaint, the complainant must be one of the following:
   1. An adjoining landowner listed in the Sherburne County real property information records or a landowner in line of sight of the code violation from the landowner’s property.
   2. A tenant on an adjoining property upon which said tenant is a legal occupant or a tenant in line of sight of the code violation from the property upon which said tenant is a legal occupant.
3. Once a non-safety complaint is filed against a property pursuant to this section, subsequent complaints related to the same code violation will not be accepted for twelve (12) months from the date of the most recent accepted complaint. 

These limitations do not apply to code violations that are public safety related.  As required by Statute, the City shall keep the complainants name and contact information confidential, and it shall not be shared. 

The City does actively enforce the City’s tall grass ordinance, snow removal requirements from sidewalks, and sign provisions as it relates to right of way signs.  City staff may also observe and respond to code violations during regular business hours.