Ruksaana and Alan Schutt Britain's Empty Homes

There are nearly a million homes lying lost and abandoned in the UK

just waiting for someone to come along and give them a bright new future.

Whether it's a tired semi or a rambling mansion,

we are on a mission to rescue Britain's empty homes.

Buying a neglected property

can be a great way of getting more house for your money,

and with a bit of creativity and dedication,

you can end up with a unique family home.

Today, I'm using my experience to help a couple weigh up

how much of a project they really want to take on.

If I was designing this house, I would have this downstairs.

To help them decide,

I'll be introducing them to intrepid renovators

who have transformed empty dwellings into treasured homes.

I have a connection to it now, there's my blood and sweat in it.

We'll be joining one of the nation's empty property officers

in their quest to get vacant places lived in again.

We may have a problem here with rats as well...

For the adventurous house hunter,

empty properties can present fantastic opportunities

because you can often get them for a knockdown price,

but breathing new life into a vacant building

can require nerves of steel and plenty of imagination.

Alan and Ruksaana Schutt currently live in part of a large country house

with their young family in South Devon.

But the arrival of baby Lily has spurred them on in their dream

to find an empty detached house to transform into an ideal family home.

We decided to do a renovation project after we had Lily ten months ago.

Um, I needed a job.

So I can't go out and get a job any more,

so I will stay at home and have one

and be project manager on a renovation project.

And I'm paying for it!

So with a budget of £450,000 of Alan's money to spend, they're looking for somewhere rural.

You could probably convert it into a four-bedroomed house easily.

Despite having no experience,

Alan and Ruksaana are contemplating a major build.

I think it would be exciting to take on a project

that needs a lot of work doing to it.

We are both very keen to take on something

where we would be moving out of our comfort zone,

if you like, into something that's a lot more challenging.

Leaving their comfort zone is all very well,

but having done little more than DIY before,

I want to offer them some guidance through the renovation maze.

What are we trying to achieve with this move?

You've got a nice home at the moment.

But you're saying it's not big enough.

It is big enough, but the layout is the main thing,

and the fact that it's part of an old mansion

and we don't have our own land.

How creative are you both

in terms of trying to see the potential in something?

I think we've come to the conclusion that I am probably more imaginative

and she's going to be the project manager.

He has more vision than I have.

Are you the voice of reason, the realist in all this?

The bossy pants.

THEY LAUGH

Scale of projects is important,

and they go from the extreme, which is a complete rebuild -

roof off, floors out, everything done -

to a more cosmetic number, where do you fit?

I think we'd consider something that just needed cosmetic work doing to it

as long as it felt right, you know,

it had the space that we were looking for.

Ideally, we'd maybe put ourselves somewhere in the middle,

but we need to be channelled and advised, I think,

before we put our foot in the water.

I get the sense that underlying this

is a need for a growing sense of confidence about what's possible,

and we can show you projects which have tackled all manner of challenges in their renovations.

That will give you the inspiration and level of imagination

that's needed to often turn these things around

and demonstrate that it's all possible,

it's just a case of what you're up for and how much you want to spend.

Bringing a house back from the brink can be immensely rewarding,

but requires great dedication and imagination.

So, I want to set them something of a test.

I want to see how flexible Alan and Ruksaana are prepared to be in their search.

So, without me to guide them,

I'm sending them to have look at a typical example

of the kind of empty property they could buy,

to see if they can spot how they might turn it into their dream home.

Slap bang in the middle of the South Devon countryside,

this barn conversion is on the market for just under £350,000.

Empty for nine months,

it's been dressed ready for sale due to the owner's relocation.

-It's quite nice.

-Very good condition.

-I like it from the outside, so far.

Alan and Ruksaana are unsure of how big a project they're prepared to take on

and I think this barn could be an interesting test of their mettle.

It's a real curiosity,

an upside down house with the living area on the top floor

and bedrooms and bathroom downstairs.

A light cosmetic makeover would make it livable.

But they could also reconfigure it to a more conventional layout.

What I want to know though is how ambitious their ideas will be.

In we go. Right, it's...

-Single bedroom.

-It's quite small, isn't it?

Still, it's a good enough size for a child's room.

-This is a bigger room.

-It is, yeah, the bedrooms are on the ground floor.

Reverse-level house.

I struggle with reverse level.

-I mean, I agree with you, I prefer a conventional layout house.

-Yeah.

So now for the upstairs.

Will they see any potential for turning this place

into that more conventional house?

-Ah, this is quite nice.

-Kitchen.

-Airy.

-Yes.

Like the windows, love the lighting.

Ah, room above the garage maybe.

So, kitchen leading into... fourth bedroom.

Oh, right.

-It's odd.

-Yeah.

I don't know if I like it being on its own.

I don't really like it on its own either.

There's something about it, the feeling's not right.

They're not keen on the layout,

but could changing it be the challenge they're looking for?

Sitting room.

Good size, isn't it?

I think it's got a lovely feel to it.

But I don't think this has got enough work for to us do here,

it's really cosmetic and new carpets and maybe a new bathroom.

Yeah.

That special project that we wanted, I don't honestly think it's here.

Yeah, I agree.

You probably could extend it, I am sure it's not listed.

But then you have a battle with the fact that the layout is odd.

If I was designing this house, I would have this downstairs.

I met up with Alan and Ruksaana later to discuss their findings.

The property that we have got you to have a look at,

your final thoughts on that one?

I think it was pretty complete as is,

and I thought that it wasn't something

we could really get our teeth into.

It was generally cosmetic.

What did you make of the layout?

-It was an upside down house.

-Yeah.

There was a bedroom next to the kitchen,

the kitchen and living room were on the top floor

and everything was all, the other bedrooms were downstairs.

That's something that we're wanting to steer away from.

In terms of that particular property, we had a guy look at it

with a view to swapping it around,

his quote for turning it into a more conventional layout was around about £30,000.

-It's interesting to know you could convert it back.

-Yeah.

So if you wanted to make it a bigger project, you could,

if it perhaps ticked more boxes than it did.

But it could be done.

I think the best thing now is to get you to look at a couple of projects

which are partway through their build, one is also finished,

to give you, hopefully, a few ideas

and fire your imagination to go on and find the right property for you.

'And that first spark of enthusiasm is all it takes

'to set off on what can be a long journey of ups and downs

'on the hunt for somewhere to turn into the perfect home.

'Which is just what Charlotte discovered

'on her quest to find the ideal place to transform into her family's home.'

We had been looking at properties in the area for literally years on end.

It was very difficult to find anything

that had been done up, you know, to a good standard.

But when Charlotte laid eyes on this five-bedroom terrace

in Parsons Green, West London back in 2005,

she knew she was on to something.

But although the place looked very good,

it wasn't long before Charlotte discovered things weren't as they seemed.

The general structural work had been done

and it had great space and a great layout and it fitted us as a family,

but then we looked a lot closer once we'd moved in

and it was just, everything was falling apart.

It had been done, you know, the workmanship was so bad.

I mean, the roof blew off, the basement flooded,

it was just one disaster after the next.

And we slowly went about redoing it from top to bottom.

It's in a pricey part of town,

and having already spent £1.6 million buying the house,

Charlotte wanted to ensure the transformation was to a very high-end finish.

We basically redecorated, changed floor coverings, redid the kitchen.

We redid every single bathroom so all the tiling, all the fittings.

Did the garden, we redid the entrance, it's just endless.

The cost of the entire refurbishment came to £250,000,

which has paid off, as the house has been valued at £2.85 million.

I mean, obviously, when you go through things like this,

you learn the mistakes and you learn what works and what doesn't.

But to have it finished

and have it done to your liking is absolutely amazing.

Everything is what you have chosen.

Everything is like a quality that you want to live with.

Across the country, there are teams of empty property officers

who are tasked with the job of tracking down the owners of abandoned buildings

and, with any luck, persuading them to bring them back into use again.

And in Cardiff, that officer is Steve Reed.

With an estimated 6,500 families on the council's waiting list,

Steve is on a quest to turn his caseload of 1,200 vacant properties

back into possible homes for some of them.

Once you see a property that's been done up and renovated,

a family living in there, it's a really good feeling.

Today, Steve is following up a complaint about a vacant terraced house.

A broken window is letting in rain water, which is seeping through the party wall

and causing the neighbours serious damp problems.

We tried tracing the owner, but had no luck at all.

All we have is the owner's name at the empty property.

Today, we are going to go and serve a notice on the property,

attach it to the front door, which gives the owner 24 hours

to secure the property and get rid of the damp problem, hopefully.

Before he serves the notice,

Steve checks the current state of the house.

It's one of the main problems, the fact that the back window is completely open,

so anybody could get in there.

That window is broken.

You can see all the plaster on this side has blown,

and the problem with next door is exactly opposite that.

It's soaking. We need to get this secured and stop the damp problem.

If the owner doesn't respond to the notice

and secure the house within 24 hours,

Steve will arrange for the council to secure it and bill the owner.

Steve goes next door to inspect the damp

and let the landlord know what the council will be doing.

This is the wall. It was so wet, I've had to cover the wall,

and I had to put vapour check plasterboard on.

Yeah.

The skirting boards have come off because they're damp.

You can see it there.

Tomorrow, hopefully, this will be sorted.

We served a notice which I am going to attach to the front door,

giving the owner 24 hours to sort out the back.

If not, I'll get people over and they'll board up the three windows,

and hopefully, it will stop the water, stop any more coming in,

and it will need to dry out over time really.

It won't stop until someone's living in there

-and the house has been tidied up.

-Thank you.

With no alternative address for the owner, the notice is

attached to the front door,

demanding that he or she carries out the work within 24 hours.

But the next morning, Steve has a major breakthrough.

The council tax office have discovered a relative can be contacted

on behalf of the owner, who is abroad.

She's quite concerned, actually,

and she's agreed to get the property boarded up herself

by the end of the week.

So I've cancelled the council going in.

Once the property is boarded,

we need to find out what they intend doing with the property.

With the sister-in-law's concerns about the property,

maybe she can put pressure on the owner as well

and hopefully, together, we can get something positive done with it.

If you are desperate to get your hands on a neglected property,

or indeed a nice derelict barn like this one,

it's worth making friends with your estate agent.

They're much more likely to tip you off first when something new comes on the market,

particularly if you're in a position to move straightaway.

If you have another property to sell, it's worth trying to move that on before you start your search.

Alan and Ruksaana Schutt are on the hunt in South Devon

for an empty rural property to transform into their family home.

And as they're weighing up how big a project they really want to take on,

I want to give them an idea as to how tough a major build can be.

They've considered the redesign of an upside down barn conversion.

It's got a lovely feel to it,

but I don't think this has enough work here.

And now I want to give them inspiration from a home owner

who is nearing the completion of her dream home.

This is what we've got for you here.

A mixture of barns and farmhouse

that has been recently converted and renovated

which I think will give you, I hope,

some really interesting ideas as to what you may want to do.

This 15th-century farmhouse and barn

instantly captured the heart of Gail Cook back in 2005.

When I first saw it, I fell in love with it.

There was nothing about it that my heart didn't like.

My head thought sometimes that it was going to need an awful lot,

but I followed the heart.

Lying empty and unwanted for a year,

Gail immediately saw in the house potential others had missed

and snapped it up for £500,000.

She then enlisted an architect and spent £250,000

transforming this ancient building into her modern dream home.

The whole of the back of the house had to be demolished.

All the floors taken up,

the ceilings came down, the roof came off.

But making it her own has been a long haul.

And, five years later,

the renovations are still ongoing for Gail and her architect, Emma.

It is now, I'd say, pretty much my dream home

and I hope that I can spend possibly the rest of my life here.

I've got such a connection to it now.

I feel like there's my blood and sweat in this! And it's mine.

Now, then. What do you reckon?

Fabulous!

That's one word, really!

I think the kitchen, it's my favourite room in the house.

I wanted it to be somewhere that I could spend a lot of time.

-It's obviously listed.

-It is.

Which must have brought some additional complications.

Yes, doing anything to a listed building,

you have to get listed building consent.

You might not necessarily need planning permission,

but whatever you want to do externally or internally

which affects the character of a listed building, you have to get approval for.

It's quite a big project.

We're talking about you managing your project.

How does this one stack up against the sort of thing you want to take on?

It would keep me busy, wouldn't it?

And Gail was not only kept busy in project managing the build,

she also endured living in rubble for a year as the house took shape.

I had no running water into the house at all for 14 months.

Except for a hosepipe to a sink on the floor.

That was the only washing, drinking, everything that was in the house.

And there was a single toilet for all the workmen and myself,

which was just in the bedroom,

in the middle of the floor.

I hope this isn't putting you off!

Gail's still smiling. She has obviously come through and is living it now.

In addition to the renovation of the farmhouse,

there is a sympathetic extension

created with traditional materials and construction techniques.

-Lovely.

-Isn't this great?

-Fantastic.

Is this the last part of the project?

And the garden, obviously, the landscaping.

I'm really excited about this one.

Presumably, you would need someone who knows what they're doing

with the woodwork to put something up like this?

It's made in the traditional way that oak frame has always been made

and this is actually a hand-made frame.

-I love it.

-Fantastic.

One of the reasons the build has taken so long is because of some sitting tenants.

A protected colony of bats needed to be accommodated

within the rebuilding of the roof.

-You still have the bats living here?

-Yes.

Just not inside?

Yes, they are.

There is an en-suite bathroom at the end, there.

They've got their own bathroom?!

Lucky old bats, yeah.

The space above the bathroom

is a bat space, we've got bat slates on.

That was the first part of the house that was finished.

-The bats had to be accommodated first?

-Absolutely.

Gail and Emma have been through all the hard work on this property.

I'm going to let you carry on exploring

-and I'll catch up with you later.

-Great.

There's no two ways about it, this is a fantastic renovation.

One that I really think has inspired Alan and Ruksaana.

I'm also moved by the love that Gail has for this building,

the imagination that her architect has brought to it.

Thanks to their passion and commitment,

it's one more gorgeous old building brought back to life.

Later, I'll be taking them to see a finished project

which will show them just how much you can transform somewhere

you might at first glance disregard.

But first, back in Cardiff,

empty property officer Steve Reid is on his way to an abandoned house

that is in a terrible state and the focus of anti-social activity.

As the owner has given up all responsibility

and with mortgage debts mounting on the house,

the council have had no choice but to issue a compulsory purchase order.

The area the property is in is quite a nice area,

but the property itself looks terrible.

It's stuck in the middle of all this.

We really need to get something done with it if we can.

Today, a decision has to be made on whether to sell it at auction as it is,

or to spend money on repairs that may improve its value and chances of sale.

Repairing it would involve spending public money,

so they need to be confident that they'd recover these costs.

Steve is meeting with senior housing surveyor Clive

to assess the state of the building.

He has done several of these notices before,

so he knows what to look for.

Roughly how much work needs doing, what we can and can't do,

to get a rough idea of how much it's going to cost.

-Hi, Steve.

-All right?

-What do you think?

-It's a lot worse that it was the last time.

We may have a problem here with rats as well...

If we go round and have a look

and see exactly what would need doing on it.

We'll have a look at clearing this.

You have the windows at the front and the doors are boarded over.

The old tiles on the roof.

The boundary walls which have been, sort of, vandalised.

The major work is round the back, with the conservatory and the overgrowth.

So there is access to the rear, here.

And obviously, people are getting in to the rear.

So it's completely overgrown here. There is a walkway through.

Kids and people can get through.

You can see they have smashed the patio doors at the back,

so they can actually get in through here.

The problem we have got is to do this work

and with the appearance of the property,

the actual costs will be absolutely huge.

I don't think we'd recover them.

Because there's no money left in the property

once the mortgage is paid.

-So just carry on with the CPO?

-Yeah, I think so.

The verdict is to sell the house at auction in its current state.

As the place is heavily in debt to the mortgage company,

all money from the sale will be swallowed up by them

and the council would not recoup any money spent on repairs.

Once at auction, Steve hopes the house will sell to a developer

who can turn it around quickly.

There is a huge potential for a new family moving into this property.

The area is really nice, the property is fairly large.

There are fields behind it, schools are nearby.

Hopefully, once the CPO is done,

it will become a nice family home for whoever buys it.

Ruksaana and Alan want to take on an empty country house

to transform into their family home somewhere in South Devon.

They have seen two very different barn conversions.

-What do you reckon?

-Fabulous.

And as they are contemplating taking on a big project,

I want them to see what vision and determination can achieve.

-Wow!

-Amazing.

-That's striking.

It is actually brand new,

which might not come as a surprise until I show you this.

This is the old, original agent spec,

but they knocked it down and started again.

-They knocked it down?

-Yeah.

-It's exactly the same shape.

It is exactly the same shape, but they knocked it down and started again.

Set in 12 acres of woodland,

this quintessential 1960s house

was just what Tony and his partner, Gordon, were looking for.

I loved this place, well, we both loved the place,

from the minute that we drove up the drive and saw it.

It was very tired, very unloved, very neglected.

But we could see it had huge potential.

But the process of actually refurbishing or rebuilding it

was probably a nightmare, if I'm going to be honest about it.

They bought it for £600,000

and initially thought they would simply refurbish the house.

But they soon realised that it needed extensive work.

So, with the help of an architect and another £600,000,

they set about dismantling it to recreate a near-identical

but more contemporary version in its place.

By taking on an empty property,

we've had the opportunity to design a house that's perfect for us.

There would be no other way of doing that.

We've been able to design it more or less as we want it.

And it is certainly a dream home.

Let me introduce you, Ruksaana and Alan. What do you think?

-Striking, isn't it?

-This is really clever.

It takes a lot of courage to unbuild something and then rebuild it again.

-We were brave.

-Were you brave, or mad?

-We were both mad and brave!

Keeping to the original shape of the building,

they redesigned the interior to maximise the use of space.

This is nice, all very slick.

A kitchen to die for.

Originally, we planned to put the kitchen down where the dining area is

and then when we'd knocked the house down and were looking at the space,

we thought, no, it's just not right.

And it actually works beautifully,

because we think of it almost like a bridge of a ship,

because you're standing there and can see right the way down,

so it's absolutely amazing.

I'm loving this, actually.

I'm an old cottage kind of guy, but I'm loving this.

This is very, very clever, very ingenious and very comfortable.

Their ambitious rebuild has paid off

and the house is now worth an estimated £1.35 million.

When you deconstructed it, did you think about making it broader?

No, it has been designed really brilliantly

because we get the sun first thing in the morning over here,

and right the way around the swimming pool.

And in the evening, you get it at this side of the house.

And if you start tinkering with it, it's going to affect that.

Did you project manage this yourself, or did you leave that to your architect?

I left that to the architect.

But I think if I had my time again,

I would have got a little bit more involved than I did,

and I did kind of step back.

Then towards the end, I got more involved,

as we were doing the finishing off bits

because I realised how important that is.

It's been a great to look around, thank you very much.

-My pleasure.

-What would be your top tips?

If it's practical, always live in the house.

We lived here for a couple of years.

When you live in the house, you change your view of what you're going to do with it,

and we changed our mind probably five or six times.

Secondly, choose your builders wisely.

And finally, you could also use a quantity surveyor

who would guide you on the costings.

Very useful if you're going to be buying and sourcing your own materials.

That is a very good tip.

So, just how have these different approaches to rural renovation affected Alan and Ruksaana?

Our little tour of properties in Devon is over

and we have had the chance to show you two pretty ambitious projects,

where are you on the scale of ambition that you want to take on for yourselves?

I don't think I'm put off by anything that I have seen today.

I'm still very excited.

A little bit more confident that I can draw in people like architects

and I'm looking forward to finding the right project.

So, does the search for an empty property go on?

-Absolutely.

-We haven't put you off?

-No.

-If anything, it's the opposite.

This has been an inspiration. You've stirred the pot.

Ah, brilliant. Well, let's hope we keep it boiling!

Best of luck, guys.

I think today has been absolutely fascinating.

It's hard to imagine two more divergent examples of style and architecture

as the two properties we have had the chance to show Alan and Ruksaana.

But I hope the experience will help them in whatever scale of project

they eventually choose to take on.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd