Councils move to let empty private houses
Saturday 22nd May 2010, 11:30AM BST.
Thousands of privately-owned homes across the Black Country have been vacant for more than six months, it emerged today.
Councils are now employing tough measures to try and encourage landlords to fill their properties rather than leave homes sitting empty. Wolverhampton City Council said it has made numerous compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) in recent months while in Dudley, council tax discounts are being slashed in a bid to bring houses on to the market.
In Wolverhampton 1,900 private properties have been empty for six months or more and the city council is hitting landlords with CPOs unless they take reasonable measures to attract a tenant.
Landlords with long-term vacant homes in Dudley are to lose their 50 per cent council tax discount, with 1,800 homes currently unoccupied across the borough.
Dudley follows in the footstep of Walsall Council which slashed council tax discounts on second homes from 50 per cent to 10 per cent in November 2008.
Wolverhampton City Council’s principal housing assistance officer Lesley Williams said CPOs were a last resort.
“In the first instance we will offer advice, assistance and guidance to the property owner to try and resolve the problem,” she said.
“If this fails to have the desired effect, we then have a range of statutory powers available to us, such as an Empty Dwelling Management Order, a notice to improve the property and, ultimately, a Compulsory Purchase Order.
“As a last resort, we are able to issue Compulsory Purchase Orders, whereby we take ownership of a property and sell it at auction.
“The new buyer must commit to refurbishing and either moving into or letting the property within six months, which ensures that it does not remain empty.
“A number of properties have gone through this process in recent months.”
Dudley Council’s cabinet member for housing Councillor David Simms said action was needed to avert a housing crisis.
“There are great pressures on our housing list and we need to be able to offer homes to families who unfortunately have had their homes repossessed due to the recession,” he said.
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I would only let my house out if the strict criteria was met, they have let out so many homes to people that now they are making cpo`s for houses we have bought as an invest .
They would not be saying this if their house they leased out was smashed up and turned into a grow house (drugs).
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Fine, set strict criteria about who you let to. Just don’t be suprised if the council disagrees about who should be able to get a place to live in.
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If it’s to find homes for the unfortunate families that have had their homes repossessed why not buy the repossessed houses they are already in and let them rent those? But I think this is driven more by the demands for multiculturalism and those that have lost their houses won’t get a look in.
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Won’t just be for those who have homes repossessed. Plenty of people on the waiting lists for council properties already.
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it’s probley to find homes for the poor unfortunate familys!! that find them selves in england looking for the pot of gold..
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Interesting development isn’t it? You can pay hundreds of thousands for a property which you own and some jobsworth in a council can order you to let it out/ decorate it on pain of having it taken from you at a price they decide.
What happens to people with holiday homes who only use the property for six weeks a year. You turn up for a relaxing holiday only to fing the place has been compulsory purchased.
What next – anyone with a car on the drive for six months must hand the keys to someone without a car?
It make Mugabe look positively democratic!
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Couldn’t agree more. If it’s your house its your choice if you rent it out or not. Councils should not have that kind of power to dictate the odds.
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I’m not in this position nor do I ever see myself in it but I am a bit shocked that the council have such powers to force Landlords to sell their properties to them.
If the property was left to somebody or they bought it and don’t have the funds to bring it up to the standards that it needs to be let should the council then have the right to issue a CPO?
Or what if the property is on the market and unable to sell in these sorry times?
Where do they draw the line?
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There’s no question that if your Housing Estate contains empty private/council houses then enrichment is coming your way. It won’t be too long before some authority wants to know how many unused bedrooms we have – just for city statistics.
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so what guidelines are the councils going to set out for the tennant.
1) to pay regular monthly rental agreement
2) not to do a runner when owing back payments
3)not to smash the property up and then leave with out payment
4)Treat the property with respect.
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What about this one Frank? If you are a developer and wish to build over a certain number of properties, you are compelled to build a certain percentage of so -called “affordable houses” (read doss holes) on the site. In one area where I live people have bought houses costing over £200,000 only to discover that in the middle of the estate are these affordable houses populated by the moronic you see about Wolverhampton. You walk past the expensive properties with nice, tidy frontages – turn the corner and you are met with a rubbish tip. The expensive properties have now dropped in value. Its called social engineering Frank. You mix the dross with decent people in the hope the dross will improve. Doesn’t work mate.
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This move is long overdue. If you want to see what happens to an area when landlords allow properties to stand derelict for any length of time then take a ride down the Hagley Road between Bearwood and Five Ways.
This busy commuter route into Birmingham (with buses into the City every few minutes) is lined with big old houses or former hotels that could either be sold or developed into apartments. And yet instead they have either ended up as doss houses, asylum hostels or simply been abandoned and burnt down.
Meanwhile, the previous government’s dopey planning laws encouraged developers to rip up green field in the middle of nowhere to build so-called ‘eco towns’ that were never very eco-friendly because the public transport links were so poor and local employment so meagre that you had to own a car just to survive there.
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I live in Wolverhampton and the amount of houses that are not let out and are left to rot by the land lords is untrue especially as the waiting list is years for a property.
I think if the property sits there for years they should be brought and put to good use. I know i am not in that sitution but still. In this lovely country no property belongs to the owner ever really at the will of the government the land can be brought at low prices and knocked down at will as the land in the end belongs to the country not the people that buy it.
A relative of mine brought land, built a house and had the governmnet buy it and knock it down to expand the road by 1 meter
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