Report a dangerous building

Buildings may become dangerous for a number of reasons, such as old age or fire damage. We have a responsibility to deal with buildings that pose a danger to people's safety.

How to report a dangerous building

Tell us if you have concerns about a building so that we can investigate immediately. We'll look into all reports as a matter of urgency and take appropriate action to keep people safe.

From 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday
Telephone: 01387 260199

In an emergency outside of office hours: telephone 030 33 33 3000.

How we respond to dangerous building reports

If the building is dangerous, we may need to:

• evacuate the residents
• temporarily close a road
• erect temporary barriers or scaffolding
• carry out repairs
• demolish it

Our powers 

We have a range of options when dealing with dangerous buildings, including:

• discussions with building owners
• carrying out urgent work and recovering costs
• issuing compliance notices
• instructing appropriate work and recovering costs

Usually the building's owner will be allowed the opportunity to carry out work (in an appropriate timeframe) to make the building safe. We may need to carry out emergency work if there is an immediate danger and we cannot contact the owner.

Dangerous building notices

We will issue a dangerous building notice if we are not happy with the outcome. This notice formally requires the owner to take action. We can then undertake all necessary work if the owner does not comply with the notice.

We will recover the costs of any work we're required to take ourselves (emergency or otherwise) from the owner of the building.