25 Nov 2008

WIRRAL TAKING OUT THE EMPTIES!

As the Empty Homes Agency launches its National Week of Action on Empty Homes today, it shows Wirral's Housing Market Renewal programme is at the forefront of initiatives being celebrated to bring empty homes back into use and tackle rogue landlords.

The independent campaigning charity which works with others to devise and promote solutions to bring empty property back into use, warns that with the downturn in the market and the credit crunch, the number of empty homes is on the way up.

But for the last two years Wirral's Empty Property Team has been working across the borough, with a particular focus on the communities in the Housing Market Renewal areas in Wirral, some of the borough's most deprived areas, to bring these properties back into use.

Part funded by NewHeartlands, Merseyside's HMR pathfinder, the Empty Property Team has brought nearly 300 properties back into use over the last two years with more than half of them owned by private landlords.

It called on the public to help, receiving hundreds of calls from people who lived near to or next door to empty properties across Wirral.

Marge from Birkenhead was one of the residents who called the hotline. She had lived next door to an empty property which was owned by a landlord who left the property empty and didn't carry out the necessary maintenance needed on the house. Consequently the property deteriorated and became a blight on the street causing damp due to faulty guttering which the family had to pay for.

Marge said:

"He bought the two houses next door to each other and they had been empty for about five years. It was dangerous because the local children liked to play around there and the wild foliage outside was causing trouble for people walking past. Eventually the leaky guttering started to affect our property and because we had no idea where the owner was we had to pay for the work ourselves.

Then my son saw an advert in the local paper explaining what the Empty Property Team did and he told me to give them a ring.

I'm delighted I contacted them because they were able to do so much more then anyone had previously. They had the authority and the ability to try and track down the landlord who was leaving the house to rack and ruin. We were just glad something was finally done about it."

It's stories like these that Empty Property Team Manager Greg Cooper loves to hear:

"The initiative has been incredibly successful and we couldn't have done it without working in partnership with the community. It's like having thousands of sets of eyes on the ground alerting you to where the problems are and we're only too glad to help.

We deal with a variety of empty homes and the problems they cause. Some homes have been left standing empty after the owner has died or moved away, others are owned by people who are just waiting to make a profit on the property market, some need refurbishment before they can be reoccupied and some are owned by landlords who are not interested in the tenants - or lack of them!

That's not to say all landlords are irresponsible, but absent landlords can be a real problem for us. Many of them don't even live in the Merseyside area and we have to track them down in order to discuss their property management responsibilities.

Luckily we do have certain powers which enable us to do this, to the delight of some residents who have lived for years next to a property left vacant and in disrepair."

The empty homes and landlord support work went hand in hand with Wirral's Landlord Accreditation Scheme gaining in popularity. More than 250 landlords have now signed up to the scheme which sees more than a thousand properties now registered by landlords in Wirral.

The initiative ensures landlords have to make sure their properties reach housing legislation standards in areas such as repair and maintenance, electrical and fire safety, and security. They also have to meet good management standards including reaching target response times in dealing with tenant's problems and repairs.

In return, landlords can access a number of benefits including access to the tenant referencing scheme - which checks a prospective tenant's previous tenancy history - a credit rating check, free advertising of accredited properties, access to energy efficiency, empty property and central heating grants and access to a wide range of advice and information.

Jan Colgan Wirral's Landlord Accreditation Team Manager said:

"We have people asking us now whether their landlord is on the list because they can expect a certain standard of service and they know that they are in safe hands. These things are important to people when they've got a family or an elderly relative to think about.

There are a number of ways that landlords find us. Our One Stop Shops have lists of Accredited Landlords, which is like the best dressed list - they all want to be on it! We also have great success advertising in the local paper and by the old fashioned way of word of mouth.

Soon tenants will be able to see what accredited properties are available on the Live Wirral website which provides them with lots of information on available properties in the HMR areas.

The accredited properties are so in demand now by tenants that it's well worth the landlords putting the work in to become accredited so it's a win-win situation for everyone."

But before landlords and home owners starts emptying their pockets looking for the money to refurbish their properties there is help available with maintenance too.

The first is an empty property loan which is available to private landlords. They can use the money to bring a property they own back into use and not have to pay it back immediately. The charge is placed on the property and paid back when the house is sold.

For owner/occupiers wanting to improve their home, a similar scheme is available. Called an equity loan for refurbishment, it works in the same way as the loan for landlords where the cost of the work is placed on the property and then paid back when the house is eventually sold.

The discussions into tackling the problems caused by the number of empty properties across the country, including those by the Empty Homes Agency which holds its annual conference this week, continue and efforts to find a solution to the problem are ongoing. But hopefully Wirral is well on its way to succeeding in this field and is in the process of making neighbourhoods more sustainable for the 21st Century.