Commentary on Sections Part 4 – Graffiti and Other Defacement Section 31 – Defacement removal notices
Subsections (1) and (2) of this section enable a district council to serve a "defacement removal notice" on the owners of street furniture, statutory undertakers and educational institutions whose property is defaced with graffiti or any poster or placard displayed on a relevant surface in contravention of regulations made under Article 67 of the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 and which is either detrimental to the amenity of the district or offensive.
Subsection (3) sets out that the notice will require them to remove the defacement within a specified period of time, a minimum of 28 days.  Subsections (4) and (5) state that if the person responsible for the property fails to remove the defacement, the district council can intervene and clean up the defacement. Subsection (6) requires that the notice should detail the consequences of non-compliance and subsection (7) allows that the council may affix a notice to the offending surface if they are unable to locate the person responsible. Subsections (8) and (9) define the surfaces covered, subsection (10) sets out whom the notice should be served upon and subsection (11) provides the definition of remaining terms.