Empty house on my street - what should I do?

[SarahL867]

There’s a house on my street that’s been empty for well over a year now and it’s making our road look really rundown. The neighbours knew the previous owner and apparently he died but no one has come to clear it. has anyone dealt with this situation before? Do the council get involved? Would love to hear if anyone has found a way to sort this problem thanks

You do nothing. In some areas the council can force the owner to sell but that's not every street in every area and would be after a much longer period and the property falling into significant disrepair.

A year??!! That's hilarious. I lived around the corner from a house that was in probate for well over 20 years.

The house I live in now was empty for 18 months before I moved in.

What on earth do you expect the council to do? It will get sold eventually.

What exactly is the problem? If you mean the front garden is overgrown I'm sure you can tidy it up if it really bothers you.
If you mean the inside it really is none of your business.
Ask yourself what impact this is really having on you

We had similar on our road. Single old owner died. Sat empty for 8 years. Even had ring doorbell footage of people breaking into it.

There’s a section in the Building Act whereby a local authority can take action. But the building has to be in a ‘ruinous or dilapidated condition seriously detrimental to the amenities of the neighbourhood’. It’s extremely unusual for a building to be in bad enough condition for the council to take action, I suspect you can do nothing in this case.

We had almost exactly the same situation on our street. It was a complete eyesore as no one was maintaining it to the point that it was beginning to degrade the houses either side. I contacted the council but they made no action towards the issue that we could tell. A friend of mine works in property and told me about this website and so I reported it to them and about 4 or so months later the place was being completely cleared out and sorted. They were really great at keeping us updated as well.

I really would recommend it, worth having a look if you’re not getting any traction elsewhere: www.cornerstonehomes.org.uk

Problem? What problem???
There's a house on your street that's been empty for a while, that's not a problem! 🙄

Your council might have a specific empty homes team you can report it to, might be under private sector housing or environmental health. Ours had a "get empty homes back into use" drive a few years ago when they encouraged people to report them.
They will want to be sure they are getting the right amount of council tax on it too.
A year is not that long in this situation though.

You mind your own business and get on with you own life🤷‍♀️

You might be in the same area as me

Definitely see if your Council has an Empty Homes officer but if the house is going through Probate then good luck to you, the wait times for probate are now horrendous.

As long as the owner is paying the council tax the council won't care. If it's empty for over a year council tax doubles.

I don't know anyone who has done this but I've read articles about being 'rewarded' for reporting empty homes.
news.sky.com/story/how-to-earn-thousands-reporting-abandoned-homes-13253273

We have a similar issue and I have posted here before with similar replies. This house has been empty for 5 years now, it’s an eye sore and frankly lowering the house prices around it. But it seems like little can be done.

You refer the case to a probate genealogy firm. These are people who investigate cases of people who have died intestate (no will) and find out who is entitled to inherit. They will act quickly because the longer the property sits empty, the less its worth.

Thank you, this looks great. I will give this and the other sites a go. I might as well do my bit to push it along, no harm to me or anyone else

We had an empty house on our street that was possibly the seat of a rat infestation that established on our row. I had pest control out because I just didn't want my home invaded by rodents (there was evidence of them in the loft, I'm not paranoid about them). They said they were coming in from elsewhere and the unoccupied place was most likely as it could go unnoticed until neighbours started having issues. It's now been renovated and someone is living there. The rats also stopped.

It could attract squatters, or vermin. Empty properties, with unkempt gardens, that look seriously neglected, aren’t the nicest view either.

No harm in reporting it.

Vermin are not attracted to empty properties, they are attracted to sources of food. It is more likely to be attractive to vandals.

There is a house on my street that is literally a derelict. Apparently the owner inherited it but had zero interest in it's upkeep and for some unknown reason wouldn't sell it. Then he passed away and the council got involved, they actually put on a new roof as the old one was in such a state it was risking damage to the neighbors.

It actually sold earlier in the year. A new front door has been put on and a skip of junk has been taken away but so far that's it.

It's a real blight on the street though, I feel sorry for those living next door.

why not ask the owner?

Did you actually read the OP? He is dead.

I agree with you, OP.

Houses left empty for months or years will degrade. Roof tiles slip, damp gets in, pipes burst, rodents chew through the electrics. The structure of the house becomes unsound and eventually it may have to be demolished. What a waste of resources!

Also, let's not forget the many people who would love a home of their own, and the countryside that's being built on to provide more houses. There are hundreds of thousands of houses across Britain that have been empty for six months or more. It seems crazy to be building new ones when the empty ones could be refurbished and become homes again.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g518le0r5o

Yes I did read the OP, and appreciate the original owner is dead, however, as a year has passed it's quite possible the house has been inherited by someone, so it's worth checking on the land registry to establish who owns it now, with a view to contacting them.

If it hasn't changed they could put a an alert on the property, to see if the ownership changes in future.

Most councils have a team you can report empty homes to. They will sometimes encourage / cajole the owner to get it back into use.

So report to the council is all you can do. They then may or may not do something about it.

You could buy it. That way you can make sure it doesn't fall into ruin.