Demolition near you

Section 80 of the Building Act 1984 requires a person intending to demolish a building, or part of one, to give notice of that intention to the local authority, and also to the occupier of any adjacent building, to the relevant gas supplier and to the relevant electricity supplier. The section is expressed as a prohibition rather than a formality: no person shall begin a demolition to which the section applies unless notice has been given and either the authority has responded or the defined period has expired.

Section 81 sets out what the authority can do with that notice. It may serve a counter-notice on the person carrying out the demolition, and the relevant period for doing so is six weeks from the section 80 notice unless the person giving the notice allows longer in writing. That is where the six-week figure comes from, and it is the reason demolition cannot be arranged for next week. The authority must copy its notice to the owners and occupiers of adjacent buildings, to statutory undertakers where their work is required, and to the fire and rescue authority where relevant. A requirement in the counter-notice cannot conflict with health and safety law: section 81 provides that where a requirement is inconsistent with one imposed under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the latter prevails.

Section 80 also carries exceptions, and they matter for domestic jobs. The notice requirement does not apply to demolition pursued under a demolition order or obstructive building order under Part IX of the Housing Act 1985, to the demolition of an internal part of a building where the building is occupied and is intended to remain occupied, to a building with a cubic content not exceeding 1,750 cubic feet — which expressly includes a greenhouse, conservatory, shed or prefabricated garage — or to certain agricultural buildings. This is the Building Act, which applies in England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland are dealt with below.

The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 set the sequence, and it is the opposite of what people assume. Regulation 5 provides that an employer must not undertake demolition, maintenance or any other work which exposes or is liable to expose employees to asbestos unless a suitable and sufficient assessment has been carried out as to whether asbestos is present or liable to be present, and that where there is doubt, the employer must assume asbestos is present and that it is not chrysotile alone, and comply accordingly.

Regulation 7 then deals with the order of work. A written plan of work must be prepared before asbestos work starts and kept at the site while it is going on, specifying the nature and duration of the work, the location, the methods for handling asbestos-containing materials, the equipment for protection and decontamination, and the measures for compliance with the related regulations. Critically, in demolition or major refurbishment the plan must provide for asbestos to be removed before any other major works begin, unless doing so would cause a greater risk than leaving it in place.

For a homeowner, the practical translation is short. Establish whether a survey has been done and what type it is before you accept a demolition quotation, because a price that assumes a clean building and a price that includes licensed removal are not comparable. Do not let anyone start a soft strip in a pre-2000 building on the assumption that anything suspect will be spotted as they go. And do not attempt removal yourself: the position on asbestos in owner-occupied homes and where to get advice is set out in the major renovations guide on this site.

Regulation 20 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 is one sentence long and does a great deal of work. It requires that the demolition or dismantling of a structure be planned and carried out in such a manner as to prevent danger or, where that is not practicable, to reduce danger to as low a level as is reasonably practicable. It then adds the requirement that gives the duty teeth: the arrangements for carrying out the demolition or dismantling must be recorded in writing before the work begins.

So there is a document, and you are entitled to ask to see it. A competent demolition contractor will have a method statement setting out the sequence of removal, how stability is maintained at each stage, how services are isolated, how the public and neighbouring property are protected, and how material leaves the site. If a contractor cannot produce one for a garage or an extension, that tells you something about how the rest of the job will be run.

CDM 2015 also allocates duties differently when the client is a domestic one having work done on their own home. Those duties generally pass to the contractor on a single-contractor project or to the principal contractor where more than one contractor is involved, which is explained in the renovations guides on this site. The point worth making here is that the transfer is not an exemption: the duties still exist, and the written demolition arrangements are among them.

Scotland does not use the Building Act notice. Demolition there is building work under the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004, and a building warrant from the local authority's verifier is generally needed before it starts. Warrants for demolition are granted with a time period attached, and the application asks for information about the existing building and the proposed method so that the verifier can judge what protective works are needed for the safety of the public. That is a different process with a different timetable, and it should be started earlier than people expect.

Northern Ireland has its own building regulations administered by district councils, and this guide has not verified the demolition notification position there. If you are in Northern Ireland, ask your district council's building control service directly rather than relying on the English and Welsh position described above.

Separately from all of this, some buildings cannot be demolished without a planning consent of their own. Demolition of a listed building, or of an unlisted building in a conservation area, engages a consent regime that is dealt with in the major renovations guide on this site, and demolishing first and asking afterwards is a criminal matter rather than a procedural one. If either might apply to your building — and a Victorian outbuilding in a conservation area is a real example, not a theoretical one — speak to the local planning authority before you speak to a demolition contractor.

Demolition pricing is about disposal and access more than about knocking things down. The variables are the volume and type of material coming out, whether asbestos has been found and whether its removal is licensed work, whether a machine can reach the structure or it has to be taken down by hand, how close the neighbours and the boundary are, what has to be protected or temporarily supported, how services are disconnected, whether material is segregated on site, and what happens to the ground afterwards. A detached garage with machine access on a wide drive and a rear extension between two terraced houses are different jobs at very different prices.

LokalMatch does the introduction and leaves the rest between you and the contractor. Describe what needs to come down, what it adjoins and how a machine might reach it, once, with your postcode, and demolition contractors covering your area can get in touch. Homeowners pay nothing to use LokalMatch; pros pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not carry out demolition, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend anyone who responds, so checking insurance, waste arrangements and the written demolition plan is your responsibility.