condeming a buliding?

concerno

Does anyone know who the proper authority would be to condem a building or at least to check out its status, would it be health and safety? There are people turning it into a squat type community centre but its a very old buliding and its very dangerous esp to have children in there?? What to do, any ideas?

Poor Uncle Tom

By condemn I presume you mean, unfit for use or structurally unsafe.

If so any structural engineer can do a report and if they find the building to be unfit for use or structurally unsafe then they can say so on their report. It would then be a health hazard having people in or around such a structure.

The Local Authorities do not take on the role of carrying out these reports.

Corkblowin

Health & safety are only able to act if it's a workplace, so they're out. The local authority can act if a building is a dangerous structure (sanitary services act), but that generally means if it's a danger to the public, ie about to collapse onto the street etc.

If people are trespassing in private property it's up to the building owner to secure it, so you could see has it been placed on the derelict sites list, in which case it may be possible to get the council to take enforcement. You could seek to get it added to the list if you feel it's becoming derelict.

Other than that the council have no real powers over private property. Be careful about getting an engineer in to survey it if you don't own it, could be accused of trespassing yourself.