Report a dangerous building
Dangerous buildings and structures
A dangerous building or structure includes anything on or near a building or structure that may be a danger to people. The most common issues are:
- loose or falling roof tiles
- walls or fences in danger of collapse
- unstable chimneys
- removal of lateral restraint to walls
- failure of over-stressed piers
- inadequate support to chimney breasts
- filling flues with concrete
- using existing brick walls as permanent shuttering to new concrete work
- sheeted scaffolds acting as sails in strong winds and pulling down the wall to which the scaffolding is attached
- undermining of foundations, usually by underpinning which is badly designed and/or poorly sequenced
- overloading floors with builders materials
- roof 'spreading' or collapsing due to the new coverings being too heavy for the structure to sustain
Report a dangerous structure
If you are concerned that a building or structure may be dangerous you can contact us by telephone:
- Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 10.30am: call 020 8708 2529 (Building control team)
- Monday to Friday, 10.30am to 6pm: call 020 8554 5000 (Customer Contact Centre)
- any day from 6pm to 8.30am: call 020 8708 5897 (Out of hours team)
- weekends: call 020 8708 5897
Building Control surveyors are on call 24 hours a day, every day of the year to give immediate attention to dangerous structures.
A Building Control surveyor will visit the site and make an assessment if the structure is dangerous.
Costs
The owner of any building that becomes dangerous is responsible for all the costs involved in making the building safe.
If we cannot contact the owner at the time and the building needs to be made safe, we may carry out the emergency work and claim the costs back from the owner.
Dangerous structure notice
If a property is in a dangerous condition but not considered an immediate danger, we may serve a formal dangerous structure notice. This will give the owner a:
- reasonable time to respond
- point of contact for further guidance
If we have to take emergency action to remove or secure a dangerous structure, we will recover costs from the owner.
If minor defects are found we'll usually offer informal advice on the best way of dealing with the problem without charge.
Contact Building Control
Building Control
5th Floor (Front), Lynton House
255-259 High Road
Ilford
IG1 1NY
