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Buying an empty property
If you are interested in buying an empty property you will need to contact the current owner and negotiate a sale. The Council does not arrange for the sale of privately owned empty properties.
To trace the owner of an empty property you could take the following steps :
- Write a letter addressed to ‘The Owner’ and put it through the letterbox of the empty property, as the owners of many empties do visit and collect the post periodically,
- Contact Land Registry to find out the name and address of the registered owner. This is public information which anyone is entitled to obtain but note there is a charge for this information which is currently £3. Not all properties are registered, and a lot give the address for the owner as the address of the empty property – but will give you a name,
- A named person can often be located in the same way as people investigating a family tree using telephone directories, electoral register and web sites such as www.ancestry.co.uk, www.genesreunited.co.uk and www.192.com. Note there may be a charge for these services,
- Talk to neighbours of the empty property as they often know useful information about the owner or their relatives,
- If you find the owner has died there may be executives of a will or relatives who have applied to the Probate Sub-Registry (0114) 2812596. This is public information which anyone can obtain but note there is a charge for this information which currently is £5.
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