It can be risky to take things completely at face value - they’re not always as they seem. Take the case we’ve just dealt with for an EHO at a council in the Home Counties. The EHO was relatively new in post and on her list was three-years-empty 23 The Limes. On its facts, the matter looked fairly straightforward: the property owner had died without leaving a will and there was a daughter - let’s call her Rita - in the picture as next of kin. The dream outcome would be for the house to change hands and be re-occupied and for that to happen Rita would have to put it through probate.
Rita kept promising the EHO she’d get probate but you know how it is, events seemed continually to conspire against her and… n-o-t-h-i-n-g h-a-p-p-e-n-e-d. Although the neighbours were vocally not thrilled about it being empty, the place wasn’t actually falling down or being used as a rodent’s theme park so enforcement à la s.215 or s.4 or similar were not going to help.
The EHO was running out of ideas - could we help? Of COURSE we could. We spoke to Rita who was charm personified and gave very plausible reasons for the delay - her dad had wanted her to have the property but she couldn’t get solicitors to do the work and so on. We looked into things and discovered that the owner had two children - let’s call them Sue and Bob - and that Rita was in fact his second wife’s daughter. Rita had always had a close relationship with and had cared for the owner towards the end of his life but she wasn’t his daughter. Sadly, she wasn’t entitled to apply for probate - hence solicitors not getting involved - or to inherit the property. Sue was in UK and Bob lived overseas and both had been estranged from their dad and had assumed that he had left the house to Rita.
Liaising with our EHO client, we took instructions from Sue and Bob to deal with the property as part of the administration of their dad’s estate. We applied for the grant of representation promptly and, although it took a while to arrive (they mostly do these days…), we had the property on the market and sold within months. The EHO was super-happy with this - we’d kept her fully updated along the way, 23 The Limes was off her list, the new owners were paying Council Tax and the neighbours were happy. We were delighted to have assisted and, in a pleasing coda to the story, Sue and Bob instructed us to distribute part of their dad’s estate to Rita, in recognition of her relationship with and care for their dad.
If you’re an EHO you probably have problem empties that could do with moving along, whether or not they’re like 23 The Limes and we can almost certainly help. You are always welcome to contact me for an informal no-obligation chat via email at nickbeetham@fraserandfraser.co.uk or on 07850 739812 anytime. We’re here to help you BEHBIU*.
*you know - Bring Empty Homes Back Into Use.
