Welcome To Wirral

They represent a wasted housing resource for the local population and can attract anti-social behaviour including vandalism, arson and fly tipping. A run down empty property can adversely affect neighbouring house prices and are a wasted asset for the owner.

Wirral’s Empty Property Team is now in place and we are dedicated to returning empty properties back into use.

By bringing these empty properties back into use we can:

• Increase the supply of much needed housing
• Reduce homelessness
• Contribute to the regeneration of an area
• Help to create sustainable communities
• Respond positively to public concerns
• Reduce the need for ‘green field’ development.

What are we going to do about it?

Wirral Council received 1,329 complaints regarding empty properties and land between April 2003 and March 2004. Most of these complaints concerned the poor environmental quality or public health issues associated with these properties, especially refuse, litter, overgrown gardens, vermin infestations, dereliction and open or insecure buildings.

There are three new initiatives set up to tackle empty properties and derelict land; Empty Properties (link to 10027d), HOUSED (Home Ownership Using Sustainable Urban Dwellings) (link to 10027 c) and UGLI (Urban Green Land Initiative) (link to 10027 b). We also give advice and assistance to people about bringing empty properties back into use.

How You Can Help

In order to bring back empty privately owned homes back into use, we need the help of landlords, owners and residents to identify all empty flats and houses in the borough.

If you own, live next door to or simply know of an empty property, which is either a house or flat or which has potential to become residential accommodation please contact us:

Empty Property Team: 0151 691 8005 or email emptyproperties@wirral.gov.uk

What happens next?

We will inspect the problem and send the owner an official request to secure the property and clear any rubbish. If they don’t respond or refuse to act, we can do the work ourselves and send the owner a bill. If they refuse to pay we can put a special charge on the property which means the owner can’t sell it without paying up. We can even go to court to force an owner to sell the property at auction (this is called an ‘enforced sale’) or use and Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO) to bring the property back into use if the owner is unwilling to co-operate with us.