Sell a House With a Demolition or Unsafe-Building Order

Do not use the code-violations page as a demolition guide

The code-violations guide covers open notices, repair orders, and fines that can become liens. This page is the municipal endgame: an Order to Demolish, an unsafe-building order, or a case that has reached hearing or public bid. Indianapolis DBNS administers that work under Indiana’s unsafe building law (IC 36-7-9) and local vacant-building standards. Orders can be recorded; unpaid city work can be certified and collected in the manner of property taxes.

Look the address up in Accela Citizen Access (Enforcement). Demolition cases often use numbers beginning with DEM. Status labels such as Hearing Pending or Affirmed to Bid are city workflow. We do not run Accela for you.

This page is informational only and is not legal, code-compliance, or engineering advice. Unsafe-building procedure in Indiana is governed by statute and city process. Verify the actual case in Accela and with DBNS. Consult a qualified Indiana attorney for case-specific questions. We do not promise that every cited structure can be purchased or that fines will stop accruing.

Selling an uncured order carries two statutory duties

This part is law, not custom. If you received notice of an unsafe-premises order and have not complied with it, IC 36-7-9-27 requires two things of you:

1. Give full information about the order to anyone who takes or agrees to take a substantial property interest—before you transfer or agree to transfer it. This is a statutory disclosure duty that sits on top of whatever your purchase agreement says.
2. Within five days of transferring or agreeing to transfer that interest, give the enforcement authority written copies of the buyer’s full name, address, and telephone number, plus the legal instrument that accomplishes the transfer.

Read that second duty carefully: the clock can start when you agree to transfer, not only when the deed records. Failing to comply with section 27 is a Class C infraction under section 28, and each day it continues is a separate violation. Section 27 also makes you liable to the city for a judgment against it if your silence is why the city failed to notify someone holding an interest. None of that is something a buyer can absorb for you, and it is a reason to tell your closer about the order early rather than at signing.

Repairing to the order versus selling the remaining risk

Bringing the structure into compliance tends to fit when you can fund the work, the hearing is not imminent, and you want to keep the parcel. It is a weaker fit when the order is already affirmed, the repair cost exceeds any realistic net proceeds, or you cannot occupy the building. Selling as-is versus completing city-required work is that trade-off.

For example, a DEM case that is still at hearing is not the same file as one already affirmed to bid. In practice, a purchase agreement does not freeze DBNS. You do not have to finish every cited repair before requesting an offer. First, read the order. Next, check Accela. Then decide whether remaining work is something you will fund instead of transferring the risk.

This page is not legal advice. Interest from a buyer does not mean the hearing is continued. Dates vary by case. What happens after a deed records still leaves municipal process on its own clock unless the city files say otherwise.

A simplified clock—not your case

1. Inspection finds conditions that warrant demolition or an unsafe-building order.
2. Notice and a hearing process required by IC 36-7-9.
3. Hearing authority may continue, modify, or affirm the order.
4. If affirmed, the city may bid the work. Owners can still repair or demolish first.
5. Unpaid costs can follow the parcel. Recording with the Marion County Recorder is how future owners receive notice of many of these instruments.

That sequence is statute and city practice. It is not a promise about your hearing date. Vacant-house carrying costs are a different article. Recorded money claims are still liens.

What a cash sale can and cannot do

A cash buyer can sometimes take a standing unsafe structure and price remaining work, fines, and title risk. A cash buyer cannot freeze DBNS, cannot promise the hearing authority will continue a case, and cannot guarantee the city will pull a bid. If the structure is already down or a contractor is already selected, say so. Title still has to clear through the sequence on how it works. This is high legal sensitivity: treat dates on the order as planning facts, not as something we can move.