National Empty Homes Week 2023

March 3, 2023

It’s National Empty Homes Week (Monday 27th February to Sunday 5th March 2023) and we want your help tackling the problem of houses and flats left lying derelict and unoccupied while the housing crisis in the UK and Ireland continues unabated.

Organised by the charity Action on Empty Homes, it offers councils the chance to show the action they are taking to bring empty homes back into use and tackle those properties that have a negative impact on their neighbourhood. It’s also a great opportunity to provide assistance to the owners of empty homes and offer local residents advice on how to report any empty homes in their neighbourhoods.

Muhammad Uddin, Finders International’s Public Sector Development Manager for Empty Homes, said: “National Empty Homes Week is a brilliant way to draw attention to the long-standing and continuing problem of empty homes in the UK.

In this country, some 100,000 families are trapped in often poor quality, insecure temporary accommodation, which does not meet the standards that are required of permanent, secure, social housing. The number of long term-empty homes in England rose by 11,293* (or 5%) in 2022 to 248,633.

We’re delighted to lend our support to this initiative and encourage anyone who lives near an empty home to report it to us, as we offer a free service to local councils where we trace the owners of empty properties. If someone dies without leaving a will and there does not appear to be any next of kin, homes and flats can often lie empty for years when instead they could be renovated and restored to the market.”

To report an empty property, please contact Muhammad on [email protected] or call 020 3940 0089.

* https://www.eastriding.gov.uk/say/news/?entry=63f8dda09f65a71304fb6b06

CASE STUDY

Finders International are working hard to help the Empty Homes crisis as showcased in this recent case of David Traylen;

Deceased: David John Traylen

In the case of DT (Deceased) our initial searches found no obvious birth record for the deceased in the UK. One of our researchers then undertook a search of the adoption indexes, which are held in local archives across the country and discovered a record that showed the Deceased had been adopted. As there were no obvious marriage records for the Deceased, we started looking into his parents and siblings.

Once we had a copy of the Deceased’s adoption certificate, we were able to find his parents births and marriage and discovered that they had 2 further children born after the Deceased had been adopted. However, we could find no further record for his parents or siblings in the UK. Widening our search, we discovered emigration records, which suggested that the Deceased, along with his parents and siblings moved to New Zealand in 1952.

Later, the Deceased returned to live in the UK, but the rest of his family remained. Our researcher in New Zealand uncovered death records for the Deceased’s parents and younger brother. Unfortunately his brother’s only son had also passed away leaving no children of his own. However, the Deceased’s sister was still alive and living in New Zealand and we made contact with her within days of opening the case.

She subsequently retained our services and instructed one of our panel firms to undertake the administration of the estate. Finders International’s sister company FIEA were also instructed to deal with the sale of the property.

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WEBINAR

Later this month, you can also join us for our first webinar of 2023, where our speaker, Fiona Anthony from nplaw, will explore the legal aspects of bringing empty properties back into use.

Ideal for professionals in empty property management, environmental health, private sector housing, planning, building control, street scene, and solicitors.

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