A council can make a dangerous building safe even when the owner does not, but first it has to serve formal notice. Under the Building Act 1984, local authorities must deal with dangerous structures in their area. A building control surveyor who finds one immediately dangerous can act under section 78 of that Act.
Until the notice goes out, the council’s hands are tied. One senior building control officer put it plainly: before he served notice of his plan to remove the danger, he could take no action.
A fire in Boston
That officer worked for Boston Borough Council in Lincolnshire. On 19 July 2022, a hot day when Coningsby nearby hit 40.3°C, fire spread through a block of flats on Charleston Terrace. A burning bush had melted plastic air-bricks, and the flames ran up the timber frame inside the walls.
Worried the block might fall, the fire service called the council. An explosion that night brought down a roof, a side wall, and part of the front wall.
By the next morning the officer judged the rear block immediately dangerous under section 78. Its floors had burnt away, and the outer brick skin stood unsupported for its full height beside another block.
He had several parties to satisfy while he waited. Police wanted to stand down three road closures, and the Port of Boston needed its freight line beside the site reopened. Trains on that line risked shaking the ruin down, so neither could happen yet. The owner’s loss adjusters agreed the risk was serious but said they could not act yet.
A slower case in Belfast
Not every case involves a fire. In August 2026, a derelict building on Donegall Street in Belfast sat behind metal fencing with signs reading “Dangerous structure - Keep out”. It is part of the stalled Tribeca site, owned by Castlebrooke Investments since 2016.
There, the owner put up the cordon and Belfast City Council said it was talking to the owner about next steps. Stormont’s Department for Infrastructure approved the cordon and a partial road closure on safety grounds.
Demolition is not quick there either. Councillor Áine Groogan noted the building sits in a conservation area, so it cannot come down without a demolition consent application.
Neighbours bear the cost meanwhile. Deirdre Robb of the gallery Belfast Exposed said nobody had told her whether the barrier was temporary. “This could go on for another 10 years,” she said.
