Finding the owner of an empty property

Mrs_Arkwright

We are currently on the market and looking for somewhere. On our travels, we have seen a couple of obviously empty properties, that are not up for sale, but just appear to be sat there doing nothing. One of them we know for sure has been empty for absolutely ages, as we often drive past it.

How do we go about finding out who owns the properties, and is it out of order, once we've found out, to perhaps drop them a polite little note to say 'we like your empty house, is it for sale?'.

clutton_2

https://www.landregistry.co.uk - this site will tell you who owns a Registered property and it will cost £3 to find out. if it is not registered (ie if it has been in the same ownership for donkeys years) - then ask the neighbours, or write a letter to the house, what have you got to use. As part of the 2004 Housing Act (now mainly in force) the local authority may have the powers to take over derelict properties.

tigerminxy

Worth dropping a letter through the door. My house was empty for a while (in fact, to the extent that some busy bodies told the council and the council threatened a compulsory purchase order!) as we'd already moved out and needed a while to do it up for sale. It was too early for us to get the agents in but I would have got back to people if they'd dropped a note through.

There was also an offer from one of those companies that makes low cash offers for people who don't have the cash, time or inclination to do up a property before putting it up for sale. If we weren't already halfway through decorating, I'd have considered ringing them.

bylromarha

There was a programme about doing exactly this on BBC last year called "How to rescue a house"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/tv_and_radio/htrah_index.shtml

Hope that helps