Who do you tell about a dangerous roof or chimney?

Some situations are for the emergency services. A chimney stack leaning over a pavement, a roof that has partly collapsed, or slates sliding off onto a street are all risks to people now, not next week. Call 999, keep everyone well away from the building and the ground beneath it, and do not go inside to look. If you can safely warn passers-by or neighbours, do so from a distance.

The same applies if there is a risk of fire from a damaged chimney or wiring, or if someone is hurt. Leave the assessment to the people who arrive, and do not try to prop, brace or remove anything yourself. A damaged roof can drop more material without warning, and loose masonry is heavy. Once the immediate danger is dealt with, the building will normally need a proper inspection and temporary protection, which is where a roofer or a structural engineer comes in. Our page on making a roof safe covers the roofer's part.

For a structure that looks unsafe without being in the middle of collapsing, the Institution of Structural Engineers names a single route, which is to tell the Building Control team at your local authority. In Arun that means Arun District Council, and elsewhere the council for that district. Ask the council which team handles dangerous buildings, because the departments are organised differently from place to place.

When you ring or write, give the address, say exactly what you can see, and explain why it worries you: a bulging gable, a stack that has moved, a roof sagging along its length, or debris that has already fallen. Photographs taken from public ground help, and so does a note of the date. You do not need to prove anything. A clear description is what lets the officer judge how urgently to attend. Ask for a reference number, and keep it with your photographs.

If the roof or chimney belongs to someone else, they are the person who has to deal with it, so the first step is to let them know. A neighbour may be unaware of a loose stack or a slipping ridge because it cannot be seen from inside. Knock on the door, or post a short note with your photographs, and say what you have seen. For a rented home, the landlord or managing agent is the one to contact.

If the owner cannot be found, will not act or the danger is growing, go to the council in the same way. Do not climb onto your neighbour's roof or enter their garden to deal with it yourself, and avoid placing ladders against shared walls. Where a party wall or shared chimney is involved, the work may be more than a simple repair, so a qualified roofer or structural engineer needs to look at it first. Our storm damaged roof page explains what an inspection covers.

If the dangerous roof is yours, the council is not the first call unless there is an immediate hazard to the public. Start by keeping people away from the ground below, then ring a roofer who can make it safe. That might mean taking a leaning stack down in a controlled way, securing loose slates or fitting a temporary cover. A survey follows, with photographs of each fault and a written quote at one price.

If a storm caused the damage, your insurer should be told, and Which? says the receipts for emergency repairs are worth keeping. Take photographs before and after any make-safe work. If scaffolding on the pavement is needed, a licence comes from the county council as highway authority, and that takes working days, so ask about the timing early. Decisions about what a policy pays sit with the insurer. See our guide to when to call an emergency roofer for the order of events.

Reporting a concern is not an accusation. The usual sequence is an inspection, then a decision about what is needed. The building may be secured and the area below fenced off, the owner may be asked to arrange repairs, and a structural engineer may be brought in to advise. Councils differ in how quickly they respond, so ask the officer what to expect and when.

Keep your own record of the call: who you spoke to, the date and any reference number. If the situation changes, such as more falling debris or another gale on the way, ring again with an update. Meanwhile, anything you can do from the ground without taking a risk is worth doing, such as laying a table across a path to stop people walking under a hanging stack. For the bigger picture on urgent work, the emergency roof repairs page explains how we deal with a damaged roof from the first call to the permanent repair.