Empty homes

Processes to follow if your property should become empty:

Please call us straight away on 01530 454545, to advise your home is empty, to pass your details onto our council tax and empty homes department.  It may be that you are entitled to a discount on your council tax, please refer to the Council Tax page on our website, or to call Revenues the number is 01530 454499.

Download 'Empty property notification form' now

The council encourages the reporting of empty properties to us.  Once we know this, we are able to monitor and advise.

Our Empty Homes Officer is available to visit properties which have been empty for 6 months or longer, to discuss ideas for bringing the property back into occupation, they can be contacted on 01530 454864.

Selling or Letting?

There are a number of Estate Agents and property auctions in the area who can offer you a valuation, and advice on this.  To be able to let or sell the property, you will have to hold an Energy performance Certificate for the property which displays Energy ratings, so this is something that you could start to arrange!

If the property is a deceased estate: one of the first things to do is to contact a solicitor to register the property for probate.  This is a process that will need to be in place if you wish to sell the property.

If the owner of the property is elderly, and is considering vacating their long term home, we would encourage you to visit the Age UK website for advice and options regarding residential care.

Demand for housing is growing - but not enough new homes are being built. 

Across the district there are currently in the region of 900 empty properties, with over 150 of these having been empty for over 2 years!

So it makes sense to do all we can to identify empty homes, and bring them back into use. 

It’s not just about helping people find a home – empty houses blight our neighbourhoods. They affect everyone.

As far as privately owned empty homes go, we aim to advise on improving these to return them into homes - assuming we can track down the owner!

In 2022 we compiled an updated empty homes policy to tackle the problem.  Empty Homes Policy 2022 (PDF Document, 0.14 Mb) describes in more detail how we will direct action towards bringing empty houses in private ownership back into use.

Renovating a Long Term Empty Home

If the property has been empty for more than 2 years, a builder carrying out renovations may be able to charge VAT at 5 per cent instead of the standard 20 per cent.

Insure your Empty Home

It is very likely that your current buildings insurance is invalid if the property becomes empty for long periods of time.  Insurance premiums for empty properties are usually higher.  You will need to contact your insurance provider.