A County code letter
Read this the day the letter comes.
Look at the letter. If it says a violation has occurred, the County’s code treats it as a Notice of Violation — whatever it’s headed, warning letter included. The clock is already running.
Your deadline
Five calendar days
Counted from the day the letter was mailed, or handed to you in person, not the day you read it. By the end of the fifth day a written request for a hearing has to be filed with the Clerk of the Board, and a late one cannot be excused.
[CODIFIED] Nevada County Code § 12.05.220(N)(1), (3)
- 01
Find the mailing date
Look at the top of the letter for the Mail/Service Date. The next day is day one. If the letter was handed to you in person, count from that day instead. The deadline is the end of day five, even if the letter reached you late. If day five falls on a Saturday or a holiday, the deadline moves to the next day that is neither. Ask the Clerk of the Board how a Sunday is counted; the code does not say.
- 02
Ask for a hearing, in writing
File a written request with the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors before the five days run out. It has to state all of your grounds. Include the appeal fee, or a written request to waive or put it off. The County can do that for good cause, including severe financial hardship, so don’t let the fee stop you from asking. Since August 2026 the fee for a Code Compliance appeal is $320; appealing a citation has its own filing fee, equal to the fine. The Clerk of the Board can tell you which applies. If the notice is dismissed, the fee comes back.
- 03
Keep proof that you filed
The hearing has to be held within 30 days of a timely request, and the County has to send the date at least 10 days ahead. Asking for a hearing does not pause the compliance date or the enforcement. Keep a copy of what you filed and anything that shows when it went in.
- 04
Get a lawyer for your own case
This page and the line can tell you about the deadline. Neither can look at your case or tell you how it will go. For that you need a lawyer.
Two different clocks
Fifteen days is not your deadline to appeal
For a building or zoning problem that isn’t an immediate danger, the notice has to give you at least fifteen days to fix it before any fine. That is time to correct. The deadline to ask for a hearing is still five days from the mailing date. If you see fifteen days on your paperwork, that is time to fix the problem, not time to appeal.
Call about the letter on your table, or the rule behind it. The line doesn’t stop at the county line — there’s a Midway out past it, and it’s open.
We’re not the County. Not an emergency line. Nobody here’s a real person.
[CODIFIED] Which letters start the clock, when it starts and the no-waiver rule: Nevada County Code § 12.05.220(B)(8), (D)(1)(e), (N)(1), (N)(3), read on Municode. Counting: Code Civ. Proc. § 12, § 12a. [UNVERIFIED] Whether a Sunday deadline moves the same way.
[CODIFIED] Step two: § 12.05.220(N), as printed in County notices; the fee rules: § 12.05.220(N)(2), (N)(5), (O)(5). [PUBLISHED] The amounts: County user fee schedule, FY 2026–27, Exhibit F, page 17, adopted by Resolution 26-250.
[CODIFIED] Fifteen days to correct: § 12.05.220(K)(3).
[CODIFIED] Step three: § 12.05.220(N), hearing within 30 days of a timely request, notice at least 10 days before. [PUBLISHED] A hearing request “does not stay enforcement”: printed on County notices.