Dangerous structures

A building that might cause harm to a person is said to be dangerous.

If a building is in such a bad condition that it puts people in danger the Council have legal powers to make sure that it is made safe.  For example, if walls are leaning over or are unstable or if roof tiles are being blown off in strong winds.

Buildings that are just run down would not necessarily be said to be dangerous.  For example damaged fence panels.

If you think that a building in North Wiltshire is dangerous (that it might harm a person) then please contact Building Control and we will arrange for it to be inspected.

If you think that a building that you own might be dangerous, please contact Building Control and we can give you free advice.

Email building control here: build@northwilts.gov.uk


What will happen after I have reported a dangerous building/structure

If, after we have made an investigation, we agree that the building is dangerous we will do one of two things:

1. If the building is so dangerous that we think that action needs to be taken straight away, we will employ contractors to make it safe. (This normally means fencing off the area to allow initial work to be done later by the owner).

2. If the building is dangerous, but not likely to harm anyone immediately, we will try to contact the owner and will give him or her a reasonable amount of time to get work done to make the building safe. If the owner doesn’t do this, we can apply to a Magistrates Court for an order that will let us do it instead.

Whichever one of these things we do, we can only make sure that the minimum amount of work is done to make the building safe and we will always try to recover the costs of any work involved from the owner of the building.