Dangerous Structures
Sussex Building Control has a responsibility under the Building Act 1984 to inspect and if necessary carry out remedial action to deal with any structure, public or privately owned, that is judged to be in a dangerous condition in order to protect the public’s health and safety.
A building is considered dangerous, if it poses a potential danger to the safety of people and in these cases we will take appropriate action to remove the danger. We have legal powers to require owners to remedy the defect and have emergency powers that enable us to instruct our contractors to carry out works to make the building safe and recharge reasonable costs incurred for carrying out these emergency works. This generally does not include derelict buildings or minor damage to fences etc.
Our experienced building control surveyors will investigate a report of a dangerous structure, and help the owner of the building decide on a course of action. This may include:
- Employing our contractors to make the building safe immediately. In many cases we will then fence off the affected area to allow the owner to carry out remedial work at a later date.
- Working with the owner to ensure that the building or structure is made safe within a reasonable period of time. If the owner fails to comply, we can apply to the Magistrates Court for an order allowing us to do the work instead.
In both cases we will keep work to a minimum whilst ensuring the building becomes safe. Any costs incurred by Sussex Building Control will be recovered from the owner of the buildings.
Call us on 01403 215151 to report a Dangerous Structure
