Could I Buy Or Rent An Empty Home?
Empty Homes Chief Executive David Ireland answers questions about buying and renting an empty home
Could I afford an empty home?
Surveys have shown that the average cost of renovating an empty home is about £10,000. However empty homes still have a value. The cost to you will be the cost of the empty house plus the refurbishment costs. Like any house purchase you will need to have enough money to put down a deposit and pay for it either by providing the capital or taking out a mortgage.
Many councils operate housing grants and loans schemes. However, government no longer provides ring-fenced funding for these schemes. It is therefore up to councils to decide whether to provide them to you and what to provide.
If you are able to carry out work on the house yourself, you can save money. In some areas there are homesteading schemes like Own place in Liverpool, that allow people to buy empty homes at a discount.
How long will it take me to find a property and refurnish it?
You can tap into the expertise we have developed over the past 20 years and find out exactly what to do by visiting out website www.emptyhomes.com You can also report an “Empty” to us.
Our “Empty Homes” Statistics will tell you how many “Empties” there are. They may be owned by Local Councils, Housing Associations and other public bodies as well as private owners.
You can then contact the owner yourself. You won’t get an instant solution to your housing problems but an “empty” might offer you a competitive advantage over what else is on offer to you.
You will need to convince the owner to sell the property to you and then it is up to you how quickly you carry out the repairs and how much you want to spend on them.
Will I get a grant from the council or the government?
Probably not, but some councils do run schemes, so check them out. We are also calling on Councils to help by disposing of their own abandoned housing at discounted prices so there maybe discounts in the future.
Owners will usually ask the market price less the cost of any refurbishment. If homes in your area normally sell for £100,000 and the renovation work costs £20,000, you would be looking at a purchase price of £80,000. If you are able to carry out repair works yourself you may make an overall saving.
Heritage grants and Energy Efficiency grants maybe available in your area. They could well help you recover a little bit of what you spend on an “empty”.
Is it going to be quicker for me to get an empty home than wait for a council house?
If you are on the Council house waiting list you should remain on it. Council and housing association homes are allocated on the basis of need. If lots of people are deemed to have more need than you, you might never get a council house. So you need to consider other options. To become an owner of an “Empty” you would have to go through the normal hoops of securing a mortgage from a lender, you may not be able to afford to buy your own home in this way.
However you may be able to rent an Empty. Self help and shortlife housing are ways of doing up and renting an empty at low cost. property guardian schemes work in a similar way allowing people to rent an empty at low cost in return for looking after it.
Who do I tell if I spot an empty home?
You can tell us www.emptyhomes.com “Report an Empty”. In all 2,865 people have already reported an empty property to us. We have joined with George Clarke and Channel 4 to promote “The Great British Property Scandal” to highlight the 1 million empty homes and the two million families in need of a home. www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-british-property-scandal/articles/home.
Unfortunately although you can use the Freedom of Information Act to get local authorities to tell you where they are in your area it is difficult to obtain the information you want. However now that so many requests have been made under the Act it may become easier in the future. It is something else we are campaigning on.
Do I have to put down a deposit if so how much?
If you want to buy an empty home you will have to put down a deposit. Getting the finance to buy a dilapidated home can be difficult as lenders often view these properties as a risky investment. Some building societies now offer ‘brown’ or ‘eco’ mortgages which cater specifically for people wishing to refurbish empty and dilapidated homes. Some councils also offer mortgages which you may be able to apply for.
Once the price is agreed, you will need to follow all the usual steps for buying a home: put down a deposit (usually 5% of the purchase price); arrange a mortgage and loan to cover renovation costs; have the building surveyed by a surveyor; and get local authority and Land Registry searches and all the other legal formalities carried out by a solicitor or conveyancer. For information and advice on finding a lender, contact the Council of Mortgage Lenders, 3 Saville Row, London, W1X 4AF, Tel. 020 7437 0075.
What if I can’t afford to buy an “Empty” can I rent instead?
You could certainly find out who the owner is and approach them to find out if they want to rent the property.
If the owner is a private landlord you could tell them about the Channel 4 campaign to get more of Britain’s 350,000 long-term empty homes back into use. Architect and presenter George Clarke has several good tips for how to go about renovating such properties and the owner might want to watch his videos on the Channel4 website.
However, even if you report an empty home to a council you will not have an automatic right to live in it. Councils and housing association have to house people in “greatest need” and therefore you will have to wait your turn to get to the top of the list. But as a good citizen reporting an empty home may well help others to be housed more quickly so do join in our campaign.
If you are employed and single or a couple without children you could seek to become a property guardian. Property guardian s live in and look after empty property. The owner saves on security costs and in exchange you get to live in a property for much less than the cost of renting.
If you are on a low income, it might be worth checking whether any housing co-ops are running in your area. Housing co-ops are run by members for members who are on low incomes bracket (up to about £15,000 a year). Housing co-ops tend to deal with ‘short-life’ properties which may be available to rent from six months to two-years.
Can I force the owner to sell the property to me?
No. But there maybe particular schemes in your area that will help facilitate a sale at reasonable price so do check.
Most “Empties” are privately owned. Private owners and landlords will need to be approached with tact and caution. There may be a very good reason that their home is empty. Our surveys show the majority of the owners own just one or two properties. Often they are rented homes that have fallen into disrepair; sometimes the owner has inherited the property. In many cases the owner lacks the funds or the skills to repair and manage the property.
There are also many empty houses and flats owned by and often located next to businesses. Some surveys suggest that up to a fifth of all empty homes are flats above shops.
Some Councils and housing associations run “homesteading” schemes where they actual sell their empty homes to members of the public at a minimum price (it can be as low as £1), and buyers must agree to pay for any repairs and maintenance and to make a commitment to the local area. These schemes tend to be run only in areas which have very low demand for housing so there are very few of them.
Wouldn’t it be better to wait for a new build than jump through all these hoops and maybe fail in my bid?
It might be but remember that unfortunately very few houses have been built this year and you may not be able to afford to buy your own home. In Britain we’re currently building 100,000 fewer new houses every year than we need. House building rates are at the lowest since the 1920s.
Spotting an “Empty” by walking the streets in your area, contacting a local auction house and going along to the sale or searching the internet for an empty homes website in your area may give your more options than simply relying on more homes to be built in your area.
In 2010 to 2011 there were about 737,491 empty homes, and the chances are you could find one. You can ask neighbours or contact the Land Registry to find out who owns them www.landregisteronline.gov.uk. Most local authorities have an Empty Property Officer who should help you if you ask.
Could someone else find me an empty home and help me do it up?
There are certainly organisations that exist to help you such as those that feature derelict historic buildings. Several organisations working to save historic buildings publish catalogues of buildings they consider to be at risk, many of which are empty and abandoned.
Self-build plot finding agencies also feature information on plots of land for sale. Most plot-finding lists have plots with empty and redundant buildings built on them. Some of these are wrecks that are no good for anything other than demolishing. But you may be surprised how many recycled house projects you can find this way.
Don’t forget Estate Agents may also have what we call “an old plodder” on their books not shown in the catalogues or windows but which they might be able to find from their filling cabinets and which has been on their books for sometime if you ask for it. Given it has not sold quickly you may be able to get a good discount on it.
Pages on this website will tell you more about all these choices and where to go to get more information.
