Enforcement

• compulsory purchase orders can be used to buy the property, which we will then sell or lease to a housing partner, or sell on the open market
• empty dwelling management orders enable us to take over the management of the property, which may be done in partnership with a housing provider and result in letting to someone in housing need
• the sale of the property can be forced where the owner has an outstanding debt where the council had to carry out emergency repairs to secure the property and have incurred costs in resolving the issue
• enforcement notices to carry out repairs or secure the property, under a number of Acts of Parliament

We have a robust enforcement policy regarding empty properties and apply a risk rating matrix to all reported cases. The assessment considers the length of time the property has been unoccupied, community impact, visual amenity, nuisance caused to adjoining properties and various other factors to decide  the level of intervention.

Empty Property Strategy

Our strategy sets out how the Alliance will effectively and proactively address empty properties.

Empty Property Strategy 2017 (PDF) [490KB]