In more detail
There are more than 200,000 homes that have been empty for more than 6 months in England and although that figure has been declining, it still represents a massive underused asset.
Local Council Action
If you supply the following details to your local council, they should take action to investigate an empty property:
- Full address of the property
- Type of property, for example, bungalow, flat, semi-detached house
- A description of the external condition of the property
- Length of time it’s been empty
- Any additional information about the property, for example about the owner or any known occurrences of nuisance
- Your contact details.
There are limits, however, on what your council can do to tackle the problem. Councils normally try to contact property owners to see if there ware ways of bringing their property back into use. If property-owners are reluctant, councils have some legal powers they can use, including:
Compulsory Purchase Orders - the council needs to show they have taken steps to encourage the owner to bring the property into acceptable use before considering compulsory purchase. Councils may not have the resources available to do this.
Charges and Enforced Sales- councils can issue and enforce charges against a property. If the owner fails to meet the terms of a statutory notice or where someone owes Council Tax or other debts to the council, they can enforce the sale of the property to pay for them.
Unsecured properties - councils can issue orders to owners to make their property secure.
Empty dwelling management orders - councils can issue an empty dwelling management order (EDMO) to make sure that an empty property is used for housing. The property must have been empty for two or more years and not be on the market to let or sell. An EDMO allows the LA to ‘step into the shoes’ of the owner and make sure that empty properties are occupied and managed properly. The local authority can then bring the property back into use, but ownership does not change hands.
The video above features the work of Empty Homes Doctors - a local social enterprise, in Leeds.
Community action
It is hard to take action on empty homes because, of course, the property in question belongs to an owner with rights over how it is used. However, community organisations can 'name and shame' social housing and private landlords who leave properties empty for long periods of time without any good reason.
| Key Facts:
Two hundered thousand homes that could house half a million people are left empty for more than sixth months - and the neighbourhoods in which they stand empty can suffer as a result. Communities can ask the local council to look into why property has been left empty and to attempt to get the landlord to look at alternative uses. Communities can also name and shame social and private landlords who leave homes empty without good reason. |
Page Links from here
You can check the number of empty homes by local council area on the DCLG website
Empty Homes is an independent charity which used to be called the Empty Homes Agency. It provides advice and runs campaigns including Empty Homes Week.
In this toolkit, see:
HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation)
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-05-22 12:23:18 | by: admin | status: f published |