Ownerless Empty Homes - They Belong to the Queen

Of course one of the reasons that properties become empty is that a single owner-occupier dies. A number of people who contact us at the Empty Homes Agency are under the impression that when this happens the property doesn’t belong to anybody and it’s up for grabs. I’m sorry to disappoint again but ..no. The concept of ownerless property Bona Vacantia (Latin for ownerless property) does exist in British law, but more on that later. In fact the truth is weirder than you could imagine.

Firstly most people die having left a valid will. Where this happens an executor is appointed and the property is disposed of in the way the deceased wished. This process is called probate.

Sometimes the will expresses wishes that are ambiguous or cannot happen, and quite often people die without having left a will. Where this happens the property (estate) is said to be intestate. Where this happens administrators are appointed and the property is disposed of according to rules set down in the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. This generally ensures that property is left to the deceased closest relatives.

In some cases people die with no valid will and no close relatives. This is where Bona Vacantia comes in. Under a little known feudal principle called Escheats, if no valid owner can be found the ownership passes to the crown. Of course Buckingham palace doesn’t get directly involved, the process is carried out by the Bona Vacantia division of the Treasury Solicitor. They make an effort to find the rightful heirs of the property and if unsuccessful dispose of it and treat the proceeds as general taxation.

In Cornwall and Lancashire, or to be precise the land covered by the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster the property passes not to the crown but to the Monarch personally through the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster. The Monarch has appointed a firm of solicitors Farrer and co to manage the process in a similar way to Treasury solicitors. Both Duchies claim that the proceeds of property is donated to charity and does not personally benefit the Queen or the Prince of Wales.
So for those morbid souls looking to pounce on an ownerless property after the owner had died - hard luck; the Queen Prince Charles and Alistair Darling have beaten you to it.

Liberal Democrats Empty Homes Announcement Today

Lots of people have proposed policies that would help get more empty homes into use. But few have proposed something truely game changing. But today the Liberal democrats did just that annoucing a bold policy that would help get 250,000 empty homes back into use. To put that in context that's a third of all the empty homes in England and three quarters of those that have been empty long-term. It would cost a fortune, £1.4billion made up of grants and loans. But they say that the bennefits would be felt by the creation of 100,000 new social homes, 65,000 new jobs and 150,000 private homes returned to use. In other words this isn't just about getting homes back into use it's a stimulus package to get the building industry working on rennovating exisiting homes rather than hoping the market for building new homes picks up. For more info see here

Old Empty Home Falling Down - Let's Do Nothing

Heston in West London is not an area known for its heritage. It was the birthplace of Jimmy Page, but he’s still alive. Most people just know it as a service station on the M4. So when local Hestonians found out that they had a 600-year-old house in their town it is not surprising that they wanted it looked after. Sadly that’s exactly the opposite to what has happened. The Hermitage is in a pitiful state. No roof and experts reckon the walls will fall down if remedial work doesn’t start in the next 18 months.

The Hermitage is, to put it mildly, in the latter stages of decline following years of neglect. In cases like this it’s easy to say something should have been done years ago. It’s also easy to say that the council should sort it all out. The truth is when properties get into this state there are usually very few options left, and most of the options are in the hands of the owner. The cost of renovation will be enormous, the management of restoration will be a nightmare, and the potential for a public pillorying if it all goes wrong - huge. The clock is ticking, and if the only option on the table is imperfect it’s probably still better than doing nothing. Which is why it’s a bit odd that when the owner of the Hermitage proposed to renovate and turn it into a care home, local MP Alan Keen said “We certainly don’t want the council to give planning permission to anyone else to do anything nasty to it. I would like to see it kept and that’s what the residents want, and it’s my duty to support them.” Of course Alan Keen has a bit of history on this subject. His own house in Hounslow is apparently still empty following a debacle with Squatters, Comedian Mark Thomas, and the MP's expenses scandal. It's easy to say what shouldn't happen but in the absence of a better idea that's little better to a death sentence to a house with little time left.

Help Yourself to Free Empty Property?

Every week or so we get a call from somebody who has spotted an empty property and wants to know how they can claim it for themselves. The BBC TV series “Britain’s Empty Homes” that started this week has prompted viewers to ask us this question on an almost daily basis. The people who ask believe that because a property is unused, it is freely available to anybody who wants it. All you have to do, they think, is get there first, lay claim and hey presto it belongs to you. These callers area usually disappointed when we explain that it doesn’t quite work like that. What everybody else may be surprised to hear is it’s not entirely untrue either.

The legal concept here is a bit of common law called Adverse Possession. It goes back to the days of Henry V111. In essence it says that if somebody squats a property or piece of land for 12 years without being challenged they can apply to become the registered owner. If the original owner can’t disprove the claim they loose title.

In practice it only works like this for property or land that is not registered with Land Registry. The Land Registration Act of 2002 introduced new rules for registered land that better protects the rights of the owner. The squatter can apply to become the registered owner after they have occupied the property for 10 years. Land Registry then contacts the land owner gives them notice of what as happened. They have 65 business days to object. If they don’t the squatter becomes the registered owner, If they do the application fails and the owner is free to evict the squatter. However if after another two years the squatter is still there, they can apply again and they’ll almost certainly successfully become the new registered owner, even if the original owner objects.
More details from the Land Registry here

Christmas, Lego and Building Your Own House

My eight-year-old son announced yesterday that he preferred Lego to God. The dilemma that brought about this announcement was the time clash of the local church carol concert and James May’s TV special on building a real house from Lego. Set against this competition God never stood a chance.
In case you didn’t see it, the programme got thousands of volunteers to build a full size house out of Lego bricks allowing James May to live in it for a day and night. It was a TV triumph and if I’m honest more entertaining than the carol concert (which you may have gathered, I missed as well).

Building a house without complicated building skills or the expense of architects, builders, and without digging big holes or messy mortar sounds a great idea. In fact it’s an idea that predates this TV programme by many years. Architect Walter Segal came up with a similar concept in the 1960s. His system of timber frames and wooden panelling was easy and cheap to put together and allowed anybody to become a hosuebuilder.

Ok the houses look a bit quirky but I’m convinced that there’s something very special in this idea. For most of human history people have built their own homes, and in much of the world people still do today. It’s just us, a few western nations like ours, that have subcontracted this role out to house building companies.
Now that it is obvious that the builders can’t keep up with our demands. And frankly their most recent efforts have shown that they are not building what most of us want. Hasn’t the time come to think about building homes again ourselves. Lego may not prove to be the building material of choice, but if it inspires people to think about whether they really could build a house, then perhaps God may forgive us for missing his carol concert this year.

700 homes left empty over pricey carpets

Vice Admiral Timothy Lawrence, Chief Executive of Defence Estates recently said he thought he’d made a rod for his own back over his target to reduce vacancy levels in MOD homes from their current incredibly high 17% rate.

So how’s it going? According to this extraordinary story…not well. Amazingly 700 MOD homes have been left empty for five months over a delay in fitting carpets.

To his credit the Vice Admiral describes the fiasco as “totally unacceptable”. But in explanation says rather confusingly “Carpets are a difficult area. There is a risk attached”
He continues: “They were suggesting that we should add a lot of risk factor into the sum; we decided that was not good value for money for the public purse, so we took it out.”So if I understand it right, the carpet fitters were a bit pricey so Defence Estates decided to leave 700 homes empty instead of pay them too much. This ended up costing the tax payer £1.4million in lost rent. Either these were the most expensive carpet fitters in history or the Vice Admiral is right – With decision making like this he really has made a rod for his own back.

EDMOs and Tory councils

Caroline Spellman has been asking a lot of questions about Empty Dwelling Management Orders recently. That’s a good thing, in a few months she could well be the minister responsible for them. I’ve met her a couple of times and talked to her about them. And I have to say that I feel fairly sure that she just doesn’t like them. In fact in her conference speech she compared being served an EDMO to getting fined for leaving your rubbish bin out on the wrong day- in other words - an unnecessary interference by the state. Well, we may just have to agree to disagree on that. But what comes over to me about Caroline Spellman is that she is a thoughtful woman and a pragmatic politician. So hopefully the answer to her latest question will make her think. In total just fifteen councils have used EDMOs. Of those twelve are Conservative controlled councils and just three Labour. Philosophically EDMOs may not be a very Tory idea, but practically they seem to be useful to Tory councils. Pragmatically I hope she sees that the legislation is fine just as it is.

Tackle This Decadence Head-on

Decadence is an unpleasant charge to throw, but I can think of no better word to describe the 21 empty mansions in Mayfair highlighted in Saturday’s Guardian.

Mayfair and its environs have always been a unique property market. It’s location in the heart of London, quality of property, and prestigious neighbours have made it the UK’s premier piece of real estate for years. Its value transcends the normal workings of the property market. Anybody who needs a mortgage can’t afford it anyway. So in troubled times property investors head to Mayfair in much the way commodity investors divert their wealth into gold.

All financial safe havens attract a minority of unsavoury characters, and so it is here. Attracted by the weak pound, money is pouring in from tax havens around the world to buy up property in London’s crock of gold property district. Nothing wrong with that you might say. But the problem is remote absentee owners have little interest in running or managing their property investments as going concerns, they only care about the capital value. Ultimately their self interest begins to degrade the quality of the area. Decline through greed. Decadence if ever I saw it.
And so it is that 21 of London’s most valuable homes have been abandoned and are falling into rack and ruin. Mayfair is not unique, as I reported here recently; parts of Hampstead are suffering a similar fate. It is for exactly these sort of cases that council’s powers to intervene are so needed. Houses in the UK, however posh the address, are for people to live in, not for decadent speculation and abandonment. So power to Paul Palmer and his council colleagues to tackle this head on.

New Empty Homes Figures - Not Good News

Government quietly slipped some new empty homes statistics this morning. They’re still not published on their website, but can be seen here in Barbara Follet’s answer to a parliamentary question from Caroline Spellman. They show (as we anticipated) the numbers of empty homes continues to rise. The total for England now tops 764,000 the third successive annual increase. These figures show an increase of about 3% which if repeated across the whole of the UK would see the total pass 970,000. Given that these figures are a year behind anyway, I take no pleasure in saying that we really must be approaching a million empty homes across the UK.

The government's secret empty homes

This week the US federal government admitted to holding on to 50,000 vacant homes. It was rightly reported as a scandal; but what about the UK? How many empty homes is our government sitting on? By my estimate the problem is proportionately worse here, but the real scandal is we don’t actually know. Data on privately owned empty homes is widely available, But official data on the government’s empty housing stock must count as one of the worst compiled and most obscure sets of statistics available. The official figure says they own 4,802 empty homes. See column “AQ” here if you want the source. What’s wrong with it?

Firstly it’s untrue. Just one government agency (Defence Estates) admits to owning double that number, and there are tens of other property-holding agencies and government departments. And that’s before we have even considered one of the biggest sinners – the NHS.
Secondly it’s complied by people who don’t know. This figure is a sum of what each local authority in England thinks there might be in its area. But they have no real way of knowing. Government who should know the answer, just collates an estimate from other people who don’t know.
Thirdly would you have found the figure buried in an obscure spreadsheet called HSSA with a column entitled “other public”? No. It’s hidden where nobody will find it, and not mentioned anywhere else (until now!).

Government Agencies like the NHS and MOD seem to have a particular problem with empty homes. The MOD has a vacancy rate of 17%, ten times the rate of an average housing association. Of course there are special reasons, but the main one is they are an organisation that does something else- defence. They are not good property managers. And of course they are publicly funded, so management failure just gets absorbed as a cost, with no adverse consequences. The MOD are not alone, it’s what happens with most big organisations that have a bit of residential accommodation on the side. Many government agencies have a historic stock of staff living accommodation that is no longer made available to staff, others like the Department of Transport historically owned hundreds of vacant homes that they held as a land bank for future road expansion.

The first step to tackling any problem is owning up to it in the first place. The government has rightly issued guidance about how others should bring empty properties back into to use, but remains highly secretive about the empty homes it owns itself. Yes there are more privately than publicly owned empty homes, but that doesn’t excuse inaction on the publicly owned ones. The first step is for government to audit it’s own housing stock and publish the list of empty homes they own. It might, like in the States, cause people to say it’s a scandal. But it will be less of a scandal than what we have now- secrecy.