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Getting planning permission

Tell your local council if you intend to knock down a building, or part of a building. Surveyors will visit your site to ensure your planned demolition complies with the Building Act 1984. You might also need approval under various Planning Acts too - your local council will advise you on this, but there are some general guidelines you can follow.

Guidelines

Greenhouses, conservatories, prefabricated garages and sheds do not require permission to be demolished. Usually, if the building to be demolished has a volume of less than 1750 cubic feet (49.56 cubic metres), then permission is not required to knock it down. However, if the building to be demolished is in a conservation area consent will be required under planning legislation.

As well as telling your local council, you should notify all service providers, such as suppliers of gas, electricity, and water, and anyone occupying an adjoining building.

Your Local Authority may charge you for any damage caused to pavements, kerbs or verges.

• The Building Act 1984 & the Building Regulations Opens new window

Telling your neighbours

Building or demolition works can cause problems for neighbours. You can reduce or avoid annoyance for neighbours by:

• giving the council six weeks' notice of demolition work - the council may impose some conditions about how the work should be done
  
• sending a letter to the neighbours before work starts, telling them about the work, what to expect and giving a contact name and telephone number
• keeping your neighbours informed
  
• dealing with any complaints made against your demolition site straight away
  

Keeping dust, noise and smoke to a minimum

Dust

Keep dust down by spraying with water when and where you can.

Noise

There is no legal requirement for construction sites to work specific hours. However, working outside the hours of 7.00am and 5.00pm is likely to result in complaints. Working on Sundays and bank holidays could have a similar effect. Its also recommended to start later on a Saturday and work just half a day.

Smoke

Burning is not allowed on construction sites unless you have an Exemption Certificate from the Environment Agency, which lets you burn clean wood, paper and card. However, even with this certificate you may still be the Environmental Protection Act, 1990 and the Clean Airs Act, 1993 apply. For more information on these areas, contact your local council.

Find out about demolition work nuisance in your area

The following link will let you enter details of where you live and then take you to your local authority website where you can find out more.

• Find out about nuisance caused by demolition work Opens new window

Useful contacts

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