The short answer
Start by telling your neighbour what you have seen, ideally with photographs, and give them a chance to arrange a repair. If the roof or chimney is an immediate danger, contact B&NES Building Control, because councils have powers over dangerous buildings, and call 999 if anything is falling now. Keep people away from the area below, and keep records in case a claim is needed.
Decide how urgent it is
The first question is whether anything could fall on someone today. Loose tiles flapping in a gale, a chimney stack leaning visibly, or a slab of render and coping hanging at the edge are urgent. Moss, a few slipped tiles or a sagging gutter are real problems but can usually wait for a sensible conversation.
If something is actively falling, or has fallen onto a pavement or road, call 999. Stop anyone using the ground beneath, which includes keeping your own children and pets out of any garden or yard under the damage. Do not climb up, and do not try to remove loose items from your side.
Standing in the street or garden, and using binoculars if you own a pair, note what you can see: where the damage is, how large it is and what it is above. A few clear photographs with the date are worth more than a description. If you want a professional opinion, a roofer can often assess a neighbouring roof from your property or the street, though we cannot enter next door without permission.
Talk to the neighbour first
Most roof problems next door are down to a neighbour who has not noticed. Roofs are hard to see from inside, and people rarely look at their own chimney. A calm approach tends to work better than a letter threatening action, and it keeps the relationship intact for a repair that may take weeks.
Show them the photographs, point out the loose area and say what worries you. Offer to share a roofer's assessment if that helps. Follow the conversation with a short note or email, so there is a dated record that you raised it.
If the building is rented, the person to contact is the landlord or the managing agent, and it is worth asking the tenant for their details. Where the building is split into flats, the freeholder or the management company normally looks after the roof. How shared roofs are usually organised is set out in our answer on flats.
The council's dangerous structures route
If the danger is real and nothing is happening, the council can step in. In Bath, the place to report an unsafe roof, chimney or wall is the council's building control team at B&NES, and the contact details are given on the B&NES planning and building control page. Ring or email them and describe what looks as if it could fall.
Ask what the team will do next and how quickly, because the answer depends on how serious they judge the danger to be. Under sections 77 and 78 of the Building Act 1984, a council can ask a court to order the owner to make a dangerous building safe or, where the danger is immediate, take emergency steps itself and recover its reasonable costs from the owner. The council can explain how this works in your case.
What is written here is a general outline and not legal advice. When your own position is unclear, speak to the council, to Citizens Advice, or to a solicitor. Tell the council exactly what you have seen and when, and give them your photographs. Outside B&NES, ask the building control team of the council that covers the address.
Your own roof and your own risk
If debris has already landed on your property, the damage to your roof is your first concern. Photograph it before anything is moved, and keep any broken pieces. Contact your home insurer, since some policies respond to damage caused by a neighbour's property and the insurer may want to see the evidence.
Meanwhile, deal with your own side. A loose tile or stack on a shared wall can leave your roof exposed to leaks, and water may be coming through your ceiling. Our notes on water at a ceiling light cover the safety steps. A roofer can cover and secure your side with a make-safe visit while the argument about who is responsible plays out.
Where a neighbour's chimney or roof is shared, as on a terrace or semi-detached pair, who is responsible for each part can be unclear. The title deeds may say, and an independent report on the cause helps both sides.
What a roofer can contribute
Work on a neighbour's roof needs the owner's agreement, but in the meantime we can look at your own roof, tell you what we see of the shared parts from the ground, and put the findings in a report with photographs. That is useful evidence for a conversation with a neighbour, a landlord, an insurer or the council.
If the neighbour agrees to a repair, we survey their roof with them, send photographs and put the price in writing as a fixed sum. Our roof repair cost page sets out typical UK ranges for different faults, which can help when two households are deciding how to share the bill for a shared stack or gutter.
If the roof is in a conservation area or the house is listed, the owner will need to check what consent applies before changing the covering or the stack. For Bath, that means asking B&NES planning, and it is one reason a repair on a neighbouring roof can take longer to start than it looks from the street. Matching the original tile, slate or stone is normal practice in these cases, so a repair should not leave one house looking patched beside its neighbours.
Nuisance from animals is another reason people worry about next door. Squirrels in a roof can damage timbers and wiring, and a neighbour's roof in poor condition is often how they get in. The roof repairs in Bath hub lists the other problems we cover around Bath.
