A code that will regulate the minimum maintenance requirements for existing structures was passed in West Penn Township.

On a unanimous vote, supervisors on Monday adopted the International Property Maintenance Code.

Supervisor Tim Houser, said he “reluctantly” seconded the motion.

Board Chairman Tony Prudenti said at last month’s workshop that the township’s property maintenance ordinance didn’t have “enough teeth in it.”

“So we were suggested to go to International Property Maintenance Code,” he said. “And in the code, it gives us more teeth to get stuff done instead of keep pushing it down the road.”

However, Prudenti said at the workshop the problem with the code is that it is international, and that there are a lot of things in it that he didn’t agree with it and doesn’t apply to the township, so they should be taken out.

Houser said there have been blighted properties in the township that the board has been dealing with for 10 years but because the bank owns it or somebody pays the taxes.

Houser said at the workshop he was not in favor of the international code but that “the frustration of trying to get some people to clean up their property has been outrageous because they have rights - but their neighbor who has to live with it? He doesn’t have any rights.”

Solicitor Paul Datte said at the workshop the township’s property maintenance code is “very insufficient” when it comes to dealing with properties in disrepair.