Memphis Fire Damage Rules: The Private Right of Action

Who May Bring the Action

Section 13-6-106(a) is the provision that changes the shape of everything else. Any nonprofit corporation as defined in section 13-6-102, or any interested party or neighbour, may bring a civil action to enforce any local building, housing, air pollution, sanitation, health, fire, zoning or safety code, ordinance or regulation applicable to buildings, against the owner of any building or structure for failure to comply.

Three things follow from that sentence and each is worth pausing on.

The plaintiff need not be the city. A neighbour or a qualifying nonprofit can start it.

The fire code is expressly enforceable this way. It is named in the list.

The action is civil. This is a lawsuit rather than an administrative determination or a prosecution.

Why Does It Matter Who the Plaintiff Is?

Because it changes what motivates the file and how it can be resolved. A city department is generally satisfied by the condition being fixed. A neighbour may want that too, and may also want damages, and has no obligation to prioritise your circumstances or to move at an administrative pace. It also means the ordinary reassurance that nothing is happening because nobody official has been in touch is not reliable here.

Occupied or Vacant

The Act was passed in 2004 and for its first decade or so applied to structures not occupied by any owner, tenants or residents. In 2016 the legislature amended it to allow a civil public nuisance cause of action against the owners of occupied properties.

For a fire owner both limbs matter. A house emptied by a fire falls within the original wording without difficulty. A house still lived in falls within the amendment.

The Certificate of Public Nuisance

Where a petitioner has not attached a certificate of public nuisance to the complaint, the court may, by written notice to the chief housing officer and the chief legal officer of the municipal corporation, request that the code enforcement entity complete its inspection and issue a certificate of public nuisance, or a denial including a list of the reasons for the determination, within 30 calendar days.

If the code enforcement entity fails to respond within 30 calendar days of that written notice, or denies issuance, the statute provides for how the action proceeds from there.

Is the Certificate a Protection or a Hazard?

Both, depending on what the inspection finds. It is the point at which the city's own view of the property enters a case a private party started, and a denial with reasons is a document an owner would rather have than not. It also introduces a professional assessment of a building that may not have been formally inspected before. Either way it is not a step an owner controls.

What the Court Can Order

Cases under the Act are heard in the Shelby County Environmental Court, which was created for this kind of work and hears these files routinely.

Reported outcomes include orders that the owner repair the property, the imposition of fines, and awards of damages to neighbours. Where an owner does not make the repairs, or does not appear at hearings, the court can appoint a third party to take the property in hand and, in due course, to auction it.

We publish no assessment of any particular case, no view on how a court would treat a given property, and nothing here is legal advice. This is a civil proceeding with receivership at the end of it, and where anything has been filed a Tennessee lawyer is the right reader rather than a buyer.

The Receivership Provisions

Under section 13-6-106(g), if the earlier steps fail to abate the public nuisance, the court may appoint a receiver to take possession and control of the subject parcel in order to execute a plan submitted by the receiver complying with the statutory alternatives. A receiver appointed under the chapter is not personally liable for actions taken pursuant to the receivership, except for misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance in performing the functions of the office.

The receiver files a report with the court every 60 calendar days. On completing the work under the approved plan, the receiver files a final report and moves for establishment of the amount of the receiver's lien.

The Thirty Days That Matter Most

Where the court finds the work under the approved plan has been completed, it must establish the amount of the receiver's lien and put the owner on notice that the owner has 30 days from that finding to satisfy the lien in full.

That is the last ordinary opportunity for an owner to retain the property, and it requires paying for work carried out by somebody else on a schedule the owner did not set.

What Happens at the Auction?

If a qualified buyer prevails and the court approves the bid, the receiver's plan is amended by the court to include supervision of that buyer and reports on their progress until the nuisance is abated, at which point the receivership is terminated by court order after a hearing. Where a successful bid is paid in cash, the amount of the minimum bid goes to satisfy the receiver's lien. And where there is no bidder above the minimum bid, the parcel is transferred by receiver's deed to the receiver, with no requirement of cash payment of the minimum bid.

The Contested Part

We would rather set this out than have you discover it. The operation of the Environmental Court and of the Act has been the subject of federal litigation brought on behalf of Memphis homeowners, arguing that owners of occupied homes did not receive adequate due process, and reporting has covered cases in which long-term owner-occupiers lost properties through this route.

Those claims are contested and we express no view on their merits. The practical point for an owner is narrow and useful: this is not an area to navigate alone on the assumption that a court process will be forgiving of somebody who stops attending.

What This Means Before Anything Is Filed

The most valuable position is the one where no action exists, and the things that keep you there are unglamorous.

Secure the building. An open structure is the condition the statute is aimed at.

Talk to the neighbours. In a jurisdiction where a neighbour can be the plaintiff, this stops being a courtesy and becomes a practical step.

Stay contactable. A court file where the owner cannot be reached is the file that goes furthest.

Your Options, Compared

Repair, visibly. Abates the condition and removes the basis of any action.

Sell before anything is filed. The cleanest exit, with nothing on a court docket.

Sell after a filing. Workable, and a buyer will price the proceeding and the timetable.

Disengage. The route the reported cases run through.

Across Memphis and the Region

Exposure varies with who is nearby and how organised they are. The central neighbourhoods are covered under Midtown and Cooper-Young, the south under South Memphis and Whitehaven, and the north under North Memphis and Frayser. Further pages deal with East Memphis and Hickory Hill, the Shelby County suburbs and the area across the state lines.

Those suburbs include Germantown, Collierville, Bartlett, Cordova, Millington, Arlington and Lakeland, with Southaven, Olive Branch, Horn Lake and West Memphis beyond the state lines.

The full index is on our service area index.

Rules Questions

How Would I Know If Something Has Been Filed?

Court papers rather than departmental letters, and the court's records. If you are not local it is worth checking rather than assuming silence means nothing.

Does the Fire Being Recent Help?

The statute turns on the condition of the building rather than on how it got that way or when. Recency helps practically and is not a defence.

Should I Contact the Neighbour Who Complained?

Frequently sensible and occasionally not, depending on the relationship and whether anything is filed. Where proceedings exist, take advice first.

Primary Sources

Tennessee Code Annotated Title 13 Chapter 6, sections 13-6-101 to 13-6-108
Section 13-6-106(a) — who may bring the action and which codes it reaches
Section 13-6-106(g) and (h) — receivership, plans, reports and auction
Section 13-6-102 — definitions of qualifying nonprofit corporations
Shelby County Environmental Court; federal litigation concerning the court's procedures