Posting notices on empty properties
Hi, I'm considering fixing notices to a couple of empty properties where the whereabouts of the owner is unknown, asking for anyone with any information about the owner to contact me. I am a little concerned however that this is advertising the fact that the property is unoccupied and what if it led to burglary, vandalism or squatting...?
I would be interested to know whether other empty property officers fix notices to empties asking for info, and what success and/or issues this has produced.
Any info would be gratefully received.
Charlotte Brace, North Somerset Council
Notice
Hello Charlotte, I haven't posted such a notice myself, but I think it's a reasonable idea. There must be lots of other "advertisments" that this house is empty which would attract any would be thief or vandal simply by being empty and neglected, which sends out signals to the discerning eye. The real issue is not being able to trace the owner. I hate being thwarted, I wonder if you've exhausted all avenues? I recieved a flyer recently from www.graftononline.com who offer a free tracing service for empty homes officers. It might be worth giving them a "tester"?
notices
Hi Charlotte, again I haven't my self posted notices, but I was discussing this with a collegue and he said at a place they used to work they placed notices on empty homes. However this was more a 'the council are aware and action is being taken' type notice. This did however serve as a great PR exercise, and they got a front page headline in the local news for it. They didn't report any problems with this attracting extra criminal activity.
thanks
Tracing owners
Hi, I haven't resorted to posting notices on empty properties where the owner's whereabouts are unknown but speaking to neighbours is a good place to start. This has proved successful a couple of times as has the use of a people tracing website called "Tracesmart". It costs £14.95 to sign up for the first month with monthly subscriptions deducted automatically. I usually wait until I have a few traces to make and sign up and then cancel within 28 days after I've found what I need.
Mike
Posting notices on empty properties
Hi Charlotte,
I have on 3 occassions fixed laminated notices on to the boards/windows of empty homes. All three properties were visibly empty and neglected and therefore I did not feel the notice was going to be the cause of highlighting the vacancy.
I have to say that this method did not provide me with the owner's details but it did lead neighbours to call me with possible leads and useful information for my statement of reasons.
What I have found to be successful is to write to 30/40 properties in the street, just addressing the same letter to The Occupier. In one occassion, the local community provided the work place of the owner and in another they provided names and addresses of the family of the owner.
For me, the reasons for carrying out these measures is two fold; primarily to trace the owner, but if this does not happen, we have a stronger case if we are making a CPO or taking down the enforced sale route. I have also used Grafton and Fraser & Fraser, both from the Empty Homes Agency's website, they provided leads but not the owners, and helped to make a stronger case for enforcement. Good Luck.
Zainul Pirmohamed, Stoke-on-Trent City Council
The one time I tried this
The one time I tried this produced a very useful response: the ex wife of the disappeared owner contacted me with his address. Unfortunately subsequently my legal service advised against such use of notices. This debate is reminiscent of that over divulging empty property data in response to FOIA requests: ie whether the crime potential reduction of restoring empty properties to use outweighs the crime potential of publicising them.
Graham Everett
Graham Everett