Empty Homes work recognised with Best Partnership
We are delighted to share that Arun District Council have won the Best Partnership Award in the Empty Homes Network Awards 2024.
The council’s Empty Homes team have a proven track record of returning empty homes back to use and have recognised been for this work again.
The award was given for the work we are doing on empty deceased accounts along with the Revenues and Benefits team and partners Fraser and Fraser, Genealogists and International Probate Researchers.
Managing the use of this category of property (Class F) can be challenging. When probate hasn’t been granted, there are sensitive backgrounds involved and with limited information available it can be difficult to move these properties on.
Empty Homes Officer, Helen Stevens, realised that Class F properties were adding to the empty homes numbers in the district and decided to widen the picture of empty properties work and look at the homes that are sitting empty because probate hasn’t been granted.
An assessment was done to identify how many homes fall into this category and the scope of the work involved. The team then started to work with Fraser and Fraser to help with the Class F accounts that had been awaiting probate for 18 months or more (49). Initially we focused on the longest ones which were over two years (13) some of which had been exempt for over 10 years. The first Class F case we tackled had been empty for 18 years!
Our figures showed that if all Class F properties were bought back into use, an extra 46 homes would be utilised as there intended purpose. In addition, based on an average council tax charge, it would create an additional income to the council of just under £1million and if those we are initially focusing on came back into use it would be an additional income of just under £100,000.
Based on the results we are seeing, we will share knowledge and processes with other local authorities in our area at a forum later this year and hope it will encourage others in their work to bring more empty homes back to proper use.
If you need to report an empty property in Arun you can do so on our website Empty homes | Arun District Council