Empty properties

The Empty Property Team  offer free independent advice to owners of empty properties on ways of bringing their properties back into use.  If you own an empty property and are not sure what to do with it the following are some of the options available;

• Letting the property - you could use a managing agent or become a landlord and let the property yourself.  Grants for Landlords
• Selling the property - either through an estate agent, at auction or by yourself.
• Refurbishing the property for you to live or to make the property available for letting.  You May be able to take advantage of potential money saving ideas.  Visit the HM Revenue and Customs website

The Empty Property Team has produced guides for owners wishing to sell their empty property and these are available free of charge by calling us on 01200 414572.

The council is able to deal with the following problems which empty properties create;

• Rubbish which has been dumped and could attract vermin (eg rats),
• Vermin (eg rats),
• Unsafe parts of properties, for example loose slates and gutters,
• Properties which are not secure and need boarding up,
• Properties which are an eyesore,
• Hedges which are overgrowing onto footpaths,
• Dampness to adjacent properties from the empty.

If you would like to tell us about any of these problems please telephone the Empty Property Team on 01200414572 or see the web page reporting an empty property.

As empty properties can have a serious negative effect on a neighbourhood the Local Authority can use powers of Compulsory Purchase to take a property from the existing owner and the property then be transferred to a housing association or sold on the open market.  The new owner would renovate it and arrange for it to be occupied.  Whilst the owner would be compensated for the market value of the property, it is only used as a last resort where the owner is not showing satisfactory progress on renovation or occupation.