UK Law - Is It Illegal To Burn Down Your Own House?

There are a number of threads around the net addressing this exact question. They're mostly full of people divided 50/50 going YES OFC IT IS OMG and NO OFC NOT with no legal appeals or specific references. So to avoid a lot of unqualified meandering, this is what isn't helpful:

I'm checking for anyone who actually knows whether it's illegal or not in the UK, who's heard of or directly experienced this legal issue. There must be precedent on this somewhere. All Google offers is useless, uninformed speculation.

Assuming no insurance fraud, no destruction of legal tender, prior notification of respective authorities and/or locals if necessary, no potential release of toxic fumes and no risk to other properties or people, can you legally burn down your own house?

 

In the US (yeah, yeah, probably not helpful, but possibly applicable), Fire departments love getting donations of buildings to use for training, I'm sure your local fire brigade would too.

 

I understand you're looking specifically for UK references, but here in Houston it is illegal to have a bonfire without a permit. If you decide to set fire to your house, the city would be well within the law to charge you on ground of igniting an illegal bonfire as a means to recoup any losses that might incur as a result of accidents caused by an intentionally set house fire.

A bit of searching turned up this page from the UK Directgov website. Although the information in that page deals with bonfires in either a recreational sense or as a means to dispose of excess garden waste, it does link to the Environmental Protection Act of 1990, which makes it an offense to dispose of domestic waste by burning it:

Furthermore, another search for UK bonfire laws leads to the following information on a web page for UK Environmental Protection:

So, while there may or may not be a law that specifically deals with a decision to willingly burn down your own house, I presume the various laws associated with bonfires would apply in such a situation.

 

I'm guessing the reason no one knows anything is because it's much easier and cheaper to say "The frying pan caught fire, officer" than it is to go to court. Only an outright confession would culminate in a legal precedent as this potential crime is far too easy to dismiss through a defence of sheer negligence.

 

Obviously if you were trying to claim on your insurance, then it deffo would be illigal, interesting though if you werent trying to claim, would it be illigal or not.

"Theres bound to be trouble when theres Arson around"

 

In my opinion I can't see any reason why it should and if it isn't, it should be. You're endangering yourself and others. Check your local authority if you want to be sure.

I can't see starting any large scale fire being legal, and you probably fall foul of planning permission laws anyway.

This is all just speculation until nexxopedia gets here.

 

No, it isn't illegal.

Although arson 'techically' is a common law offence, it is actually reffered to under the criminal damage act, on the basis that you are criminally damaging something, using fire.

The act clearly states that you cannot damage property belonging to yourself, for obvious reasons.

So, if Mr.Smith owns a house outright, and one day decides to set it on fire, not causing any damage to any other property or endangering life, then he doesn't commit an offence.

 

But surely if it's a Semi-detached, terraced, or apartment, he could be charged for reckless endangerment. It's a complex idea.

 

Builders around here quite often set fire to old steadings (stone barns) to clear out the old wooden parts and leave the stone walls when they are converting them. You have to inform the fire brigade your doing it so they don't respond to calls from the public reporting the fire and they will want to inspect it first to assess the danger.

 

Interesting question. I always have "burn down my house" as the last recourse against an unjust legal system - never considered whether it's actually legal though, legality is for schmucks.

 

Could you not anon phone a solicitor and ask? Just curious, I mean... phone one in like... Newcastle or something (Not to suggest Geordies are happless arsonists... *coughs*) and then see where that takes you?

 

Here I think it would only be a violation of environmental laws, but I'd have to ask the fire marshal.

 

if no intent to harm, all of the above, no lien holders and no local ordinances barring gigantic bonfire, yes.

...now i'm thinking about what's eating gilbert grape?

 

No one is asking the first question that I thought of, which is, "Why would you want to burn down your house"?

All I can think of is:

A) Insurance claim, in which case obviously not legal.

B) Large house in it's own large plot of land and you simply want rid of the old house to build a new one, and the most expedient way of doing so is to set fire to it. Although in England, it will probably be a brick building, so that wouldn't work here. In the US though, where they build their houses from timber a great deal it might.

That last one will probably fall foul of the clean air act, as there will be all manner of substances in a house that will emit some pretty acrid smoke I would think.

 

There's always the possibility of the legal system deciding to give your house away or repossess it due to say, divorce, or due to them saying that you've been earning money illegally. I can think of many situations in which I'd burn down my house rather than let someone who doesn't deserve it have it.

 

Obviously there is the question as to why someone would want to burn down his or her own house, but since the original poster already noted that insurance fraud was not an issue, I presumed the question was purely an academic exercise - more a curiosity of the legality of the act rather than a question of the desire to do so.

 

UK law states that under the offence of crimial damage, arson is criminal damage by fire, you dont commit the offence if the property belongs to you... It is one of the lawful defences. But criminal damage with the intent to endanger life is.... For more please see.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_damage_in_English_law?wasRedirected=true

 

This is correct.

You cannot cause criminal damage on your own property or damage anything that belongs to you.

How many old hard-drives i have smashed up and well set fire too in my bin to ensure data is erased in my time..i wouldn't be arrested for that because they belong to me.

However i am sure there is a raft of enviromental health laws(civil) that the council would take the person to court for, i doubt they would give permission for it to occur and i am sure there are plenty of bylaws in ways that a house should be dismantled, hence why you dont see building companies just burning houses to the ground to demolish them currently and i am sure the fire brigade would be happy to send a person a nice bill for there attendance even if the person didn't want it, such a thing such as a house fire would generate calls and they would have to attend as a matter of course to ensure it was under control.

 

As above really, the actual act of burning your own house down wouldnt be illegal, but the environmental aspects of it would be.

There are plenty of farmers that have been charged over burning offences. You cant just burn **** anymore.

 

My dream in life is to buy a plot of land and build a house on it, then eventually burn it down when I'm done there. I don't like the property market and don't want to be a part of it, and it would go against my principles to sell a house I'd built.

It would be timber and fairly crude, since I don't have any vocational training beyond using a saw and hammer. I'd clear out plastics and such first, try to keep it to natural materials and some bits of paint - by that point it'd essentially be a large bonfire. Since it's hand-built we wouldn't be talking a 3-storey vista either, more a cottage.

This was, however, also a point of legal curiosity for its own sake as well, yes. I'm planning an essay on property and ownership rights at the moment, so these issues are rattling round my brain. To my mind, if you can't destroy something, you don't meaningfully own it - you're just renting or borrowing it. I think it's a good habit to take stock now and then of what you really own and what's just in your keeping for the time being...

Bit-Tech never fails. I love how this thread actually manages to systematically proceed towards a refined conclusion, rather than being this sort of disjointed, unhelpful, contradictory mishmash. Reps abound.