You could earn Amazon vouchers and big money finding abandoned homes
By reporting empty properties to YouSpotProperties' website which buys rundown homes, keen property spotters could bag four-figure sums.
After reporting an empty property near his home in Balham, South London to YouSpotProperty.com, Matthew Philpott received £8.800.
Similarly, on the other side of London in Hendon, Levinia Gluck had a windfall of £6,500 for reporting an empty property round the corner from her mother's house to the site.
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Property spotters
YouSpotProperty is the brainchild of Ben Radstone and Nick Kalms. The pair specialise in acquiring and restoring unoccupied and dilapidated homes.
The company offers a £20 Amazon or M&S voucher in return for details of each eligible empty property reported via its website. However, property spotters really cash in if the company eventually buys the property: it will give you 1% of the purchase price and also donate £500 to a local charity.
Levinia saw a potentially great property across the road from a park and with easy access to the North Circular. But the property had been abandoned so she noted down the address and sent YouSpotProperty a picture of it.
Within a week she received a £20 Amazon voucher as the house fitted the criteria of what the company was looking for. But the best bit was yet to come.
“For the next three months, YouSpotProperty kept me in the loop of their investigation into tracking down the owner and entering negotiations. On the day of completion, they paid me £6,500 – 1% of the £650,000 the company paid for the property,” she says.
The company also has its own tracking team which looks for properties. Of the 200 homes it’s purchased, 27 have come from spots from members of the public who have gone on to receive 1% of the purchase price.
The site has a number of terms and conditions the property needs to meet to be eligible. For example the property cannot be for sale or rent on the open market, or have been up for sale or rent during the previous six month period.
It must also have been empty for more than 12 months or, if occupied, must appear to be derelict.
Empty homes
YouSpotProperty is only looking for properties in London and within the M25 but people in other areas can report empty properties to their local council.
According to the latest Government figures, there are more than 610,000 empty properties in England, with about 200,000 sitting empty for six months or more.
Obviously, some homes are empty for transactional reasons. For example, they are being renovated or are in the process of being sold. But others have been abandoned and left to fall into disrepair.
Derelict buildings attract squatters, vandalism and vermin, and bring down local property prices. Consequently, local authorities are keen to hear about empty properties. Check your local council’s website to find out its reporting procedure.
Empty property grants
If you own – or buy – an empty home you might be able to get a grant from your local council for essential repairs and improvements.
An empty property grant can cover the reasonable cost of eligible works to repair or renovate a property and make it suitable for living in again. Certain energy efficiency works can also be funded.
Some authorities also offer an empty property loans scheme to help owners restore empty properties. Unlike grants, loans need to be paid back.
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How councils deal with empty homes
In most cases the council will try to work with the owner to explore how they might bring their property back into use. But, if people are reluctant to engage, local authorities have some legal powers they can impose.
If the owner fails to bring the property into acceptable use once contacted by the council, the local authority can issue a compulsory purchase order (CPO) to force the owner to sell up.
The local authority can also enforce a sale if the owner of a property has failed to meet the terms of a statutory notice or owes Council Tax or other debts to the council.
Another option is an empty property management order, which allows the council to restore the property as residential housing – but ownership doesn’t change.
However, local authorities don’t have much money to spend on finding or buying empty properties so they don’t always use the powers available.
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