Description of the
The owners of listed buildings are legally obliged to maintain, repair and treat their listed buildings with due care, and to protect them from harm, insofar as this can reasonably be expected of them. Under certain conditions, other groups of people are also obliged to do so. If these obligations are not fulfilled, the lower-level heritage protection authorities (districts, independent cities, major district towns) have several options:
They may issue what is known as a ‘heritage protection order’. This is an administrative act by which an owner or other party subject to the obligation is required to carry out certain conservation measures or, at the very least, to allow another party to carry out these measures. They may also carry out absolutely essential measures themselves or have them carried out by others.
Actions that damage or endanger a listed building may be prohibited.
In both cases, the authority must take particular care to ensure that nothing unreasonable is demanded of the party subject to the obligation.