Washington officials are exploring options regarding two abandoned houses in the Macswoods subdivision.

City Attorney Franz Holscher reviewed four options at the City Council’s meeting Monday, noting his preferred option would be addressing the issue through the city’s minimum-housing code. Under that option, the city would incur legal fees, he said.

The two houses — one known as the Hodges house and the other known as the Gillespie house — are on the list of houses the city wants to bring up to building and safety codes.

Sheila J. Svela, who lives on Camelia Drive, told the council, during its Nov. 14 meeting, the boarded-up houses bother her. “Since we moved here, there were several houses that appeared to be abandoned. I have spoken with your code (enforcement) officer and after calls back and forth, we were finally able to get the lawn mowed,” Svela said. “I went in, after reading the ordinance, and found out that, unfortunately, not all of the ordinance was being applied, just the portion about the 18 inches of grass height before anything can be done. That really isn’t acceptable. The house in question … has been abandoned for well over 25 years. The windows are boarded up. I have to see this morning and night, every time I go in and out of the neighborhood.”

Holscher said the city must be careful in dealing with the abandoned houses because the city could be found liable for actions it takes in regard to the houses if the city does not follow proper procedures. City Manager Bobby Roberson said the city could be guilty of trespassing if it enters the houses to inspect them without permission of the owners.

Holscher said the options include issuing warnings to the property owners to remedy the problems with their properties.

Holscher explained each of the four options — abatement of a public-health nuisance, police power (which requires an ordinance allowing invocation of police powers in specific circumstances), condemnation of unsafe buildings and enforcement of the minimum-housing code. In 2012, the city updated its minimum-housing code so that it almost consistent with state law.

“What that process requires … is there’s got to be a petition from five residents that claim the dwelling is unfit for human habitation, or your public officer — who would be your planning department director, or his designee, the code-enforcement officer — would upon his own initiative or his own motion say to himself, ‘The looks like a dwelling that’s unfit for habitation.’ Once that happens, that process gets initiated, you’re supposed to do a preliminary investigation. If the preliminary investigation warrants following through with it, then at that point he would do a notice of hearing.”

Before taking that route, Holscher recommends the city do what it’s been doing in the past three or four years: letting his office confirm the owners of record, notify the city’s inspections branch who it needs to notify concerning the properties and how to serve those people with the notice of hearing. The method of service is by certified mail and regular mail.

Depending on the outcome of the hearing, the city has options it can pursue, Holscher said. If the property owner is ordered to make repairs or allow the city to make the repairs but does not do so within a specified amount of time, the city can order the owner to demolish the house. If that does not happen within a certain amount of time, the city can demolish the house or remove it.

Holscher said at least one option requires an imminent threat to the public before it could be used to demolish the houses, if demolition is warranted. State law does provide some immediate relief in some cases, he said. “If the structure’s on the sidewalk and is about to fall into the sidewalk, a place everybody walks by everyday, you could conceivably have an imminent threat,” Holscher said.

Roberson told the council that city staff would move forward on the matter, which means incurring legal fees. “On those two houses, we’re going to step up and do whatever we can to bring those two houses up to the minimum-housing code,” he said.