Dangerous structures and emergencies
The Building Control team can take action where buildings or structures may have become dangerous, including boundary walls, fences and temporary hoardings. We work closely with the police, fire service and other agencies to help ensure public safety.
Buildings and structures can become dangerous for various reasons:
- old age
- design defects
- hit by a vehicle
- wind and weather damage
- fire or explosion damage
- vandalism
- poor maintenance or neglect
- sudden collapse
Call us to report a dangerous structure
If you think a building or structure is dangerous, call the Building Control team on:
- 020 8547 5002 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm)
- 020 8547 5800 outside office hours
We’re on call 365 days a year and aim to review the risk within 2 hours.
If you have photographs of the problem, you should also send these to Building Control at building.control@kingston.gov.uk. This can help us assess the situation and decide what action to take.
What we can do
There are two main categories for the type of dangerous structure.
Imminent
These structures are at risk of imminent collapse and must be secured for public safety.
We can make the structure safe immediately if necessary and make sure that any work is carried out in the most suitable way. If this is on private property, we’ll try to contact the owner first. If we can’t, we’ll usually leave a message saying what we’ve done and who the owner needs to contact.
Hazardous
These structures may be unstable but not imminently dangerous.
If the structure is in a dangerous condition but isn’t an immediate hazard, we may issue a dangerous structure notice. We’ll leave our contact details for further advice and the owner will be given reasonable time to reply to this.
If the problem is a minor defect, we’ll usually offer free informal advice on the best way to resolve the problem. We only take direct action ourselves when it is absolutely necessary.
Charges and fees
If we have to take emergency action to remove or secure a dangerous structure, we’ll charge the owner for the cost of fixing it. This is to cover our administration costs and our contractor’s fees.