EXCLUSIVE: There are around 260,000 uninhabited properties across the UK going to waste, with the team at Empty Property Hunters working to find new families to call them a home
Unloved and un-lived in, this lonely old home tells the story of hundreds of thousands of others that our blighting our communities.
For over six decades, the ramshackle pad in Fareham, Hants, has been empty – except for the rats scurrying around inside and the foxes in its overgrown garden.
Neighbours joke it looks like The Addams Family home and complain it “brings down the area”. Others fear squatters are poised to break in and take it over.
Neighbour Anne Page, 84, says: “It’s a big stain on the area.” All agree something must be done about this blot on their area – where similar homes fetch £350,000.
The home was reported to Empty Property Hunters earlier this year – and since then, the firm has been working to help find a new family to call it their home.
Former Royal Marine Phillip Jones, 46, believes it could be done up and sold on for a good cause.
He said: “Maybe if they sold it, the money could go to veterans, we have so many homeless at the moment.”
It is one of an estimated 260,000 UK homes that have been vacant for six months or more.
Valerie Edwards, 84, said: “They could do them up lovely and they’d be a great home.”
Simon Taylor, from EPH, said empty properties have often been passed on by folk in their wills.
He said: “Some owners can’t cope with probate, inheritance rows or the cost of repairs. That’s where we try to unblock the situation.
“The maddest thing? Homes like this are often sitting in areas where families would bite your hand off for the chance to buy one.
“You hear the same thing everywhere we go, ‘Why has nobody done something about it?’ That frustration is boiling over across Britain.”
Today, the Daily Star launches a campaign to recruit an army of “Sherlock Homes” sleuths to find the more than a QUARTER OF A MILLION long term empty homes in Britain – and help bring them back into use.
You can become an amateur detective to identify unloved properties across the UK and help ease the country’s housing crisis.
And what’s more, if you are the first person to identify a house that’s been empty for at least 12 months, you could earn a £20 reward voucher.
On top of that, if your detective work leads to an empty home being lived in again, you could earn ONE PER CENT of the sale price. On a £300,000 property that’s worth a cool £3,000!
The Daily Star has teamed up with the team at Empty Property Hunters.
Daily Star editor-in-chief Ben Rankin said: “This is a marvellous opportunity for our caring, sharp-eyed Daily Star readers to turn detective and make a difference to the country’s housing crisis – and make a few bob at the same time.”
Simon Taylor, founder of Empty Property Hunters, said: “This isn’t just a property story. It’s about neighbours, communities and thousands of homes sitting empty during a housing crisis.”
To report an empty residential property, scan the QR code here on your phone, go to the dedicated Daily Star/Empty Property Hunters web page and follow the instructions.
Or you can simply visit www.emptypropertyhunters.co.uk/dailystar
Happy hunting!
By staronline@reachplc.com (Alan Edwards)
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