House owner off the grid!!

supa34

Yeah it's a row of 5 houses

I own the first two, the middle one is the empty property, 4th one is the person that tried to claim it and fifth house I don't know.

OK so it does happen. But then it makes you think why not just sell it, cash it in? Now council charge tax even on empty property.

Then there is issue of insurance, most likely none for that house but in worried if roof gets any worse it will affect my roof too.

Well I'll try the council empty property department again. They were cheeky to point out to me the conifer tree is overgrowing onto the footpath and I should trim it and dispose of it. I told them to do their job and I'm leaving the conifer. Last thing I want is people breaking Into the place.

brianposter

First point of call is to ask the neighbours, and also to discover if the last known owner has died.

getmore4less

If I owned a property attached to that I would be making it reasonably water tight to avoid any risk of it damaging mine.

AdrianC

supa34 wrote: »

The tenants are living in the house I have purchased.

They are complaining about the pigeon, mainly the cooing noise they make all night.

I'm not quite sure what they want you to do about wild birds...

Asking the neighbours is tricky as the tenant mentioned that they have tried to take possession of it, mentioned a term that I can't remember

Adverse possession.

I got in touch with council empty home department and they knew about it but can't seem to get it back on market and repaired.

There y'go, then. No more you can do about it.

I had a look at land registry and ow er is registered to same address.

The fact it IS registered won't have helped the neighbours with their adverse possession claim, either.

If not alive then how long does it stay unclaimed for?

If the registered owner is dead, then ownership will pass to whoever inherited their estate.
If the deceased left no will, then there's an established legal intestacy procedure to determine who that is.
https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will/y/england-and-wales/no/no/no/no/no/no/no/no

If they have no sufficiently close family, then ultimately it passes to the Crown - "bona vacantia".
https://www.gov.uk/unclaimed-estates-bona-vacantia

molerat

There are many actions the council can take but very few the council want to take as they can be costly and it can take some time to recover those costs. Your best option is to complain to the local councillor, that is what they get paid for. https://www.gateshead.gov.uk/media/4587/Empty-property-causing-you-problems/pdf/EmptyCausingProblem.pdf?m=636482445733900000


There is a house near me, a large magnificent property with cliff top views over the sea and would sell easily, even in its current state. Has been derelict for many years with the inherited owner living overseas. A couple of years ago it was broken into (again) by the local druggies and torched. As it is detached it does not pose a structural danger to any properties close by but may de-value them. The council keep talking about it but it gets put on the too difficult pile.

supa34

Wow, a big thank you to the last two post. That's great help and I have enough to be getting on with.

I didn't think of dry rot as mentioned in the gateshead council leaflet.

I haven't actually seen the property yet, only spoken to agent looking after it and speaking to tenants in the agents office. The agent mentioned the damp coming from next door and the pigeons making noise and mess.

I'll try to get bottom of it. Worse case board up the broken windows and repair the roof so stops water and vermin.

Well lesson is if your going to leave a property in your will, leave it to someone who will appreciate it and need it.

molerat

As for pigeons
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-46931028

Worse case board up the broken windows and repair the roof so stops water and vermin.

Can you do that without trespassing and possibly causing criminal damage ?

AdrianC

supa34 wrote: »

I haven't actually seen the property yet, only spoken to agent looking after it and speaking to tenants in the agents office.

Sorry, you've bought and are letting a property that you haven't even seen?

Ms_Chocaholic

supa34 - I've PM'd you.

supa34

Yeah, I purchased 4 properties. 2 I saw 2 I didn't see.

Yeah will ring alarm bells with the sit on fence brigade but I take risks.

The two had tenants in so I didn't get a chance to view it. They are paying their rent so no issue with that.


Yeah the trespass question. Council says I post a letter first with notice of what I am going to do and when and then do it at the time stated. I know doesn't make sence and you know no one is going to read it, but hey that's why they have loopholes in the law!!