GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2007

SESSION LAW 2008-47

HOUSE BILL 2402

AN ACT substituting the word "notice" for "complaint or order" in the law that authorizes the city of winston‑salem to give annual notice to chronic violators of the city's garbage and trash ordinance and the city's overgrown vegetation ordinance.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  Section 1 of S.L. 2003‑120, as amended by S.L. 2007‑319, reads as rewritten:

"SECTION 1.  A municipality may notify a chronic violator of the municipality's garbage and trash ordinance that, if the violator's property is found to be in violation of the ordinance, the municipality may, without further notice in the calendar year in which the notice is given, take action to remedy the violation, and the expense of the action shall become a lien upon the violator's property in accordance with G.S. 160A‑193. The initial annual notice shall be served by registered or certified mail. When service is made by registered or certified mail, a copy of the complaint or ordernotice may also be sent by regular mail. Service shall be deemed sufficient if the registered or certified mail is unclaimed or refused, but the regular mail is not returned by the post office within 10 days after the mailing. Under this section, a chronic violator is a person who owns property whereupon, in the previous calendar year, the municipality gave a notice of violation at least three times under any provision of the garbage and trash ordinance."

SECTION 2.  Section 1 of S.L. 1999‑58, as amended by S.L. 2003‑120 and S.L. 2007‑319, reads as rewritten:

"SECTION 1.  A municipality may notify a chronic violator of the municipality's overgrown vegetation ordinance that, if the violator's property is found to be in violation of the ordinance, the municipality shall, without further notice in the calendar year in which notice is given, take action to remedy the violation and the expense of the action shall become a lien upon the property and shall be collected as unpaid taxes. The initial annual notice shall be served by registered or certified mail. When service is made by registered or certified mail, a copy of the complaint or ordernotice may also be sent by regular mail. Service shall be deemed sufficient if the registered or certified mail is unclaimed or refused, but the regular mail is not returned by the post office within 10 days after the mailing. A chronic violator is a person who owns property whereupon, in the previous calendar year, the municipality gave a notice of violation at least three times under any provision of the overgrown vegetation ordinance."

SECTION 3.  This act applies to the City of Winston‑Salem only.

SECTION 4.  This act is effective when it becomes law.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 3^rd day of July, 2008.

                                                                    s/ Beverly E. Perdue

                                                                         President of the Senate

                                                                    s/ Joe Hackney

                                                                         Speaker of the House of Representatives