What Is a Common Nuisance in Indiana? 

TL;DR: A common nuisance in Indiana has nothing to do with a noisy neighbor or an overgrown yard. Under Indiana Code 35-45-1-5, it is a building, structure, vehicle, or other place used for unlawful alcohol purchases, legend drug activity, controlled substance activity, or human trafficking. Visiting one is charged as a Class B misdemeanor, a Class A misdemeanor, or a Level 6 felony depending on the circumstances. Maintaining one is a Level 6 felony. Indiana appellate courts require the State to prove continuous or recurrent unlawful activity — a single transaction is generally not enough. 

Most people first encounter the phrase when it appears on a charging information alongside a possession or dealing count. It sounds almost quaint next to the other charges, a holdover from an older era of criminal law. It is not. A conviction for maintaining a common nuisance in Indiana is a Level 6 felony, and it can attach to someone who never sold anything, never manufactured anything, and in some cases never personally used a controlled substance at all. 

That is because this offense is about a place rather than a substance. A car, an apartment, a rented garage, a hotel room, a spare bedroom — any of these can supply the basis for a charge if the State believes the location itself was devoted to unlawful activity. Understanding how the law defines a common nuisance in Indiana, and what prosecutors actually have to prove, matters a great deal to anyone facing it. 

How Indiana Law Defines a Common Nuisance 

The governing statute sits in the chapter on offenses against public order. Subsection (a) of Indiana Code 35-45-1-5 supplies the definition: a common nuisance is a building, structure, vehicle, or other place used for one or more of five enumerated purposes. 

• Unlawful alcohol purchases — buying an alcoholic beverage in violation of Indiana Code 7.1-5-10-5. 

• Legend drug activity — unlawfully using, keeping, or selling a legend drug, meaning a prescription medication. 

• Controlled substance activity — unlawfully using, manufacturing, keeping, offering for sale, selling, delivering, or financing the delivery of a controlled substance or an item of drug paraphernalia, as described in Indiana Code 35-48-4-8.5. 

• Human trafficking payments — providing a location where a person pays, offers to pay, or agrees to pay money or property for a human trafficking victim or an act performed by a victim. 

• Human trafficking offenses — providing a location for a person to commit a violation of Indiana Code 35-42-3.5-1 through Indiana Code 35-42-3.5-1.4. 

The breadth of that list is the first thing to notice. The word “vehicle” appears alongside “building” and “structure,” which is why so many prosecutions for a common nuisance in Indiana arise from traffic stops rather than from raids on residences. From that single definition, the statute then creates two separate offenses. 

Visiting a Common Nuisance in Indiana 

Under subsection (b), a person who knowingly or intentionally visits a common nuisance described in subsections (a)(1) through (a)(4) commits visiting a common nuisance. Note the omission: the human trafficking category at (a)(5) is not included in the visiting offense. The charge is then graded in three tiers. 

• Class B misdemeanor — where the location was used for unlawful alcohol sales, legend drug activity, or controlled substance and paraphernalia activity. 

• Class A misdemeanor — where the location was used for trafficking-related payments, or where the person knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly takes someone under eighteen or an endangered adult, as defined in Indiana Code 12-10-3-2, into a location used for controlled substance activity. 

• Level 6 felony — where the person takes a minor or endangered adult into such a location and has a prior unrelated conviction under this section involving a controlled substance or paraphernalia. 

The mental state carries real weight here. Prosecutors must show that the person knew the character of the place. Presence alone, without that knowledge, is not the offense. 

Maintaining a Common Nuisance in Indiana 

Subsection (c) is short and severe: a person who knowingly or intentionally maintains a common nuisance commits maintaining a common nuisance, a Level 6 felony in Indiana. Unlike the visiting offense, it carries no graded tiers. 

The operative verb is “maintains,” and the statute does not define it. That gap does considerable work in litigation, because whether someone maintains a common nuisance in Indiana turns less on ownership than on control. A person who owns or leases the property, exercises control over it and permits the enumerated activity to continue falls squarely within the statute. A short-term guest, a passenger, or someone with no authority over the space generally does not. Landlords and vehicle owners occupy the difficult middle ground, where the analysis turns on knowledge and actual control. 

The Statutory Defense for Small Amounts of Marijuana 

Subsection (d) supplies an affirmative defense to a charge of maintaining a common nuisance in Indiana. It applies where the offense involves only the unlawful use or keeping of less than thirty grams of marijuana, or less than five grams of hash oil, hashish, or salvia, or an item of paraphernalia designed or intended for use with those substances — provided the person has no prior unrelated conviction under subsection (c). 

Two limits deserve attention. The defense reaches only use or keeping, not manufacture, sale, or delivery. And it applies to the maintaining offense under subsection (c), not to the visiting offense under subsection (b). Anyone weighing how it might apply should read it alongside the broader drug possession laws in Indiana, since the two charges are routinely filed together. 

Penalties and Collateral Consequences for Common Nuisance in Indiana 

Sentencing for a common nuisance in Indiana follows the general sentencing guidelines. Under Indiana Code 35-50-2-7, a Level 6 felony carries a term of six months to two and a half years, with an advisory sentence of one year, and a fine of up to $10,000. Under Indiana Code 35-50-3-2, a Class A misdemeanor carries up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine. Under Indiana Code 35-50-3-3, a Class B misdemeanor carries up to 180 days and a $1,000 fine. 

Indiana Code 35-38-1-1.5 permits a court, in appropriate cases, to enter judgment for a Level 6 felony as a Class A misdemeanor once the person satisfies conditions the court sets. That conversion is often the most valuable outcome available, because the collateral consequences of a felony — firearm rights, housing applications, professional licensure, immigration status — reach much further than the sentence itself. Convictions under this section may later be eligible for expungement once the applicable waiting period has run. 

How are Common Nuisance Charges Are Challenged? 

Every case turns on its own facts, but several avenues recur in defending a common nuisance in Indiana. 

• Sufficiency of the “common” element. As Leatherman illustrates, proof of a single occasion may not support the charge at all. 

• Search and seizure. These counts frequently follow a traffic stop or a residential search. If the stop lacked reasonable suspicion, or the search exceeded its lawful scope, suppression can hollow out the State’s case. 

• Control over the location. A person present in a home or vehicle is not automatically maintaining it. Who held the lease, the title, or the keys is often decisive. 

• Knowledge. Both offenses require a knowing or intentional mental state as to the character of the place, which is rarely proved by proximity alone. 

• Charging and double jeopardy issues. Where this count accompanies a possession of a narcotic drug charge from the same incident, questions of successive prosecution and overlapping proof sometimes arise. 

Speak With an Indiana Criminal Defense Lawyer 

Keffer Hirschauer LLP is led by Bradley Keffer and Tom Hirschauer III, both former deputy prosecutors who now devote their practice to defending Hoosiers against the charges they once filed. That background shapes how the firm approaches a case like this one: knowing which elements prosecutors find hardest to prove, and where the evidence in a stacked charging information tends to thin out. 

Our Indianapolis attorneys routinely handle criminal matters throughout the state, from Marion County to rural courts where these charges are filed just as often. If you have been accused of visiting or maintaining a common nuisance in Indiana, the sooner counsel reviews the charging information and the evidence behind it, the more options remain available. Contact an Indiana criminal defense lawyer today at 317-648-9560 to discuss your case or complete our online contact form to schedule a consultation.