Today I received a letter from the local authority stating
>It has come to our attention that this proeprty appears to be vacant. Please provide information relating to the current position of the property and indications of its proposed future use.
The letter goes on to say why empty properties are an issue and reasons why the council aims to bring empty properties back in to use. citing lack of housing etc etc. Good for them.
However, i’ve been living here for the last 2 years. The garden is well maintained, bins are emtpied every week, I answer the door to the postman when he comes, Im friendly to my neighbours who i would assume know that i live here. My car is even parked outside. I am also a registered voter at the address.
So my question is, why does the council think it is empty? and how would they come to know about it if it were?
Is there someone from the council that goes round looking in peoples windows to see if there is someone living there? or does some local curtain twitching busy body write to the council about it?
TLDR: letter from the council saying they think my house is empty, I’ve lived here full time for the last two years. How do they come to know about empty properties?
7 comments
Have you made sure the electoral role and council tax register are up-to-date?
Most likely, IMHO, is that the address is somehow wrong.
Is there a contact number? Just ring and explain.
Councils have forms for reporting empty / abandoned property, that’s another possibility.
If the property was previously empty, the owner may have been eligible for a discount. At our local council we have an empty & unfurnished discount for 12 weeks, after which a follow-on discount is applied. This is a 0% discount but marks the property as empty so we can send out reviews/add empty premiums etc.
It’s possible this is still open in the background and needs to be ended.
I have done property inspections for Councils and one thing I looked for was “stuff on windowsills” – especially plants. I worked in an area where second homes were not unknown. Properties might be occupied “only at the weekends” existed – so cut lawns weren’t enough. But plants on the windowsills, especially if they looked a bit neglected was one of things I noted.
Bins being on the driveway – again not necessarily a good test. Sometimes neighbours put them out.
Put plants – yes, if the plants were neglected then that was a good sign that no one lived there. Having NO plants was also a reasonable indicator.
My husbands uncle is now in a care home. Looking at the house from outside, the best indicator that the house was not being lived in was the dead plants in his front window. His bins were in his driveway at the side of the house, and in fact one of his neighbours was using them (his garden waste bin was full!) and had even put some sheets of plasterboard in the driveway (covered with a tarp). So the driveway and bins gave the impression that the house was occupied – but the dead and dying plants?
Those were the giveaway.
Probably a nosey neighbour who isnt very bright
If it was previously empty, then there’s probably just been a fuck-up and your earlier form explaining that the property isn’t empty was mis-filed or wasn’t filed at all.