Thomas and Katie Heinowski Britain's Empty Homes

Across the country, empty properties that could be homes

are just waiting to be brought back into use.

I'll be finding out why and what you need to do

to rescue a house for yourself.

Along the way, we'll be following the property detectives

who track down the owners of these forgotten houses

and help breathe new life into the communities blighted by them.

And I'll be doing some digging of my own to find out more

about our housing stock, our heritage

and why we should both be preserving and reinventing Britain's empty homes.

When searching for a home that suits all your needs,

It can sometimes feel like you're striving for the impossible,

but by considering an empty property,

you could massively open up your options.

With imagination and hard work, you could breathe new life

into a vacant place and make it a truly amazing home

that has everything you want.

On today's show, I'll be helping a family who think the best way

to achieve their dream home is to take on the challenge

of a disused house.

This is massive, it's got plenty of potential, lots of opportunity

to put your own mark on it. It's exciting, definitely.

And we'll be following one of Britain's empty property officers

working to get vacant buildings lived in again.

I'll come back in 10 or 11 months

and hopefully both properties will be finished

and there'll be families in both.

RAF officer Tom Heinowski and his wife Katie

live with their three young children in North Yorkshire.

They're soon moving to the south coast where Tom will see out

the remainder of his service.

We're looking for an empty property so we can tailor it around

our young family. We've got three kids.

Ideally like a four-bed that we can suit to our own taste.

Tom's job sees him working away for much of the time,

so the family has moved house almost every year since 2006.

They're hoping their budget of £250,000 will enable them

to purchase and transform an empty property

and make it their permanent base.

We don't have anywhere really now that we can call home

and I think that's sad for all of us, especially the kids,

because they need to have somewhere they can relate to.

I'm really, really looking forward to it.

Tom and Katie want to tackle much of the work themselves

and are excited about embarking on a project together.

I think it is really nice to be able to bring something back to life,

something that's perhaps been derelict for a long time.

Make good use of it, make a family home from it.

But as first-time renovators, they have some concerns.

I'd really appreciate the opportunity to meet someone

who can point me in the right direction

and maybe give me some guidance as to the planning process

and some of the pitfalls that we might encounter along the way.

I'm meeting up with Tom today in Axbridge near Exeter

to hear more about his plans and explore somewhere he,

Katie and the children can put down some roots.

I want to show you something of a hidden gem,

something away from the urban mass, really.

This is it. I think you should treat this as an exercise,

see if you've got the stomach for an empty property.

See what you make of the inside.

It's a little bit tired, it's got a few problems.

-Let's go inside and have a look, shall we?

-Fantastic.

Originally the stables for a hotel, this four-bedroom cottage

has been in the same family for more than 100 years.

It's been empty for eight months

and is on the market for £300,000.

It would be quite a challenge for Tom and Katie

but the potential is endless.

It's clearly quite dated.

There's a lot to take on here.

Do you find yourself quite daunted by that at this stage?

Not daunted at all. We've got lots of enthusiasm for this.

Something that we can completely start again with

is not a bad thing.

When you see a property like this, does it excite you?

It's certainly got the space, doesn't it?

Yeah, it's got a lot of potential.

We didn't come into this with any preconceived ideas.

What we were after was something that offered us

the opportunity to grow and live on a more permanent basis.

This is massive.

It's got plenty of potential.

Lots of opportunity to put your own mark on it.

It doesn't look as though it should be listed with the plastic windows

and doors it's got in it. Shouldn't have any of those limitations.

No, it's exciting, definitely.

That's where you've got to be careful as well

because you've got a young family

and you can't just put a one, a two and a four-year-old

in damp living conditions in the middle of a building site

so there's got to be a practical side to this, hasn't there?

I'm not sure what Katie would think of it

but I'd be happy to live in a big caravan.

I've seen people doing it before and it seems to work quite well.

I think in some ways, it would motivate you to move on faster

if you're actually living on-site

and you're seeing the property that you're working on.

All the rooms are quite similar in size, actually,

except for the kitchen, which is that bit bigger,

-so let's go through and we'll have a look.

-Great.

Here we are in the kitchen. It's not a bad size, actually.

It feels like you've just got a bit more light coming in here,

because of the two windows. How much work do you want to do yourself

when you find an empty property?

We'd like to do as much of the work as we can,

and if that involves getting tradesmen in to do some of the work,

showing us how we can do what we need to do safely

and then doing it ourselves, that's what we'll do.

Look, we've seen the downstairs.

-Let's go and have a look at the long line of bedrooms upstairs.

-Great.

Although this place is slightly over Tom and Katie's budget,

who knows, there could be room for negotiation

and with some hard work they could make it an incredible family home.

Well, here we are. It's a lovely big garden.

This is such a nice quality to this place.

That view - so tranquil and just gorgeous, isn't it?

Yeah, this is a cracking garden.

Really exactly what it is, I've got it in my head.

It's the right size.

It's backing on to a field full of spring lambs.

A view over the countryside, beautiful.

You're at the beginning of a journey.

From where you're standing right now, what worries do you have?

What things concern you?

We've got to know that when we start,

one, when we're going to finish, and two, that we can,

because to start something and be left in limbo...

I don't want that.

And of course there's the budget as well. First-time renovators -

you can't afford to make expensive mistakes.

No, it needs to be done right first time. That's a definite,

which is where the planning comes in.

I think it's going to be a really good idea for you to meet a couple

who've been through all this.

They've taken quite a similar property and transformed it

into their ideal home.

They'll have loads of great advice and tips for you

which I think really could set you well on your way.

Yeah, I think it could be great to meet someone

who's been through this before. Who's able to point us

in the right direction and perhaps give me a better idea

for the various stages that we're going to have to consider and plan.

It seems that Tom and Katie haven't really lived anywhere

they feel is their own, so this next move is a huge opportunity

to settle and really find somewhere they can call home.

Tom seems up for a big project. He's got loads of enthusiasm

but the budget is tight and the experience limited,

so it's going to be really good for him to meet a couple

who've been through all this,

and hopefully, they can offer him some great advice.

Across Britain, hundreds of thousands of homes

are sitting vacant and unloved.

They can be left abandoned for a number of reasons,

but fortunately, many local councils employ empty property officers

whose job it is to find out why and bring them back into use.

In Cardiff, Steve Reed is charged with this task

and today he's heading to a flat

which has been on his books for some time.

The report we've had is that a flat below it have got damp problems.

We're going to check the walls

and see if we can actually pinpoint it to the vacant flat.

Meeting Steve at the property is a colleague from the local council,

senior surveyor Clive Scrase.

All right? This is the first floor flat,

the one that's vacant, obviously.

Steve and Clive need to check for any exterior signs

that the damp may have caused structural issues with the building.

I'm wondering whether the driving rain's hitting above that window

and getting in there.

To find out the extent of the damage that's being caused inside,

they need to get into the ground floor flat

where the tenant has reported serious damp problems.

So do you clean that off regularly?

We generally clean it once every two weeks or so.

-It comes back that bad?

-It comes back.

It comes through pretty quick as well,

within the first couple of days.

Has it got worse with the driving rain and...?

Through winter, you definitely noticed it getting a lot worse.

I'll try the damp meter on those to see what we've got with them.

Clive needs to take measurements to assess the moisture levels.

If the levels are too high,

it can lead to mould which can cause respiratory illness

and ultimately, this place could become uninhabitable.

You can see the moisture readings are quite high there, Steve.

We definitely need to get access to the flat above

to determine it is that window that's causing the nuisance.

If it is, obviously we can go ahead with service of a statutory notice.

What we really need to do now is get in touch with the owner,

so we can get access to find out exactly what the problem is

in the flat. We urgently need to get the owner on board with this

to try and get this reoccupied.

Following his visit, Steve obtained a warrant

to enter the first floor flat, which allowed him to confirm

there is damage to the roof causing the leak.

He is still working on tracking down the owner.

From crumbling cottages to dilapidated dwellings,

no matter what kind of empty property you take on,

you'll need a clear vision from the start.

But if you do take that leap of faith,

your investment could pay off sizably,

leaving you with a home you'll never want to leave.

And that's exactly what happened when Peter and Susan Harrison

bought what was part of a former nursing home

in Skipton in North Yorkshire in 2007.

When we first visited the property, it very much still was subdivided

into these small cell-like nursing home spaces.

Very small bedrooms, each one with its own little en-suite bathroom.

There was nobody living here.

It still had the old chairs of the nursing home.

It was still a warren of rooms but you could see the potential.

The building stood empty for a year before they took it on.

Peter is an architect and worked on the project for 12 months

until the renovation was complete.

It was important to me particularly,

that we didn't have lots of rooms that sat empty.

I actually felt that that makes a home quite soulless, I think.

It made sense, really, to keep the rooms quite large and functional

and with a growing family, again, it works well.

Susan and Peter have created a family home

which fits their needs perfectly.

I suppose my favourite part of the house is the light, how light it is.

It was the first thing that I noticed when we visited the property

but also it's the thing I do enjoy every single day.

Our master bedroom, for example, which has a bathroom set within it,

is always full of light.

It's always a room that anybody visiting the house

will always comment on.

By taking on a disused house,

the Harrisons have been able to transform it for less money

than if they'd bought a place already renovated.

I think when we moved here,

I personally felt that I couldn't imagine wanting to move again.

This does feel like somewhere

-that we are very settled in as a family, doesn't it?

-It does.

It is nice to find a home that you know you want to settle in

and that the children will grow up in and that's quite important, I think.

-For them.

-It's great for them and, you know,

we see the children contented.

Leaving homes unloved and unlived in

is a problem right across the country.

And with Britain facing a housing crisis,

it's an issue that needs addressing.

Over the years, there've been a number

of government-funded projects and initiatives

involving empty properties that really have failed

to deliver on their promises. Today's government,

they claim they're taking empty properties seriously,

so can they really make a difference?

Historically, owners of vacant buildings have been exempt

from paying council tax for the first six months they're left empty.

If they remain unoccupied, they've also been entitled

to other discounts, but that's now set to change.

I've come to meet Communities Minister Andrew Stunell

to find out more about the Government's new proposals.

What's the current situation

with empty properties and council tax discounts?

At the moment, local authorities don't have discretion

about how discounts are given. What we're doing is changing that.

What are the Government proposing?

What we're saying to councils, what we're including

in the legislation that's going through Parliament at the moment,

is you can decide whether to give a discount or not.

We think it's right for councils to have the opportunity

to put a full council tax on as an incentive

to get those homes back onto the market, back into use.

Just what a difference can that make to a community?

It can make a huge difference because an empty home

is often the focus for antisocial behaviour or squatting.

Environmentally, it lets an area down.

From that point of view, the neighbours are usually very keen

to see empty homes brought back into use.

Finally, as a Government, do you feel you're really putting

empty properties on the national agenda?

At a time with so many young people looking for homes,

getting extra property on the market

looks like an absolute no-brainer to me.

With a glut of houses lying unused in Britain,

it's clear something needs to be done.

I'm on my way to meet Dave Carter,

an empty property officer from Enfield Council.

So, Dave, as someone on the front line,

you're fighting empty properties on a daily basis.

What do you make of Government proposals

to allow councils to use council tax

to help them put pressure on owners of empty properties?

I'm all for that. If they're going to be getting a council tax bill

landing on their doorstep every month,

on their bank balance every month, it's going to be a reminder.

-"I need to do something about that."

-When it hits your wallet,

that's when you start to remember that you should be doing something

-with this house.

-That's what the thinking behind this is,

to hit these people in the wallet.

This is one of your long-term empties.

-Shall we go and take a look inside?

-Yes, by all means.

Vacant places like this are a blight on neighbourhoods

and with increasing numbers of people

on council housing waiting lists,

they're a vital resource in great need.

-Yeah, it really is a bit of a state, this place, isn't it?

-Yes.

That's what happens with these long-term empties.

On the whole, you welcome these changes if they happen,

and also, do you feel now that empty homes are more and more

on not just the agenda, but the Government's political agenda?

Oh, yes. I think in the time that I've been an empty property officer,

I've seen the profile rise and I'd welcome it, obviously.

It makes my job a lot easier if the tools I'm working with

are improved all the time.

So maybe this new initiative could be the answer.

By giving local councils the power to make owners pay

even when their buildings sit empty, hopefully it can benefit

neighbourhoods up and down the country.

Back in Axbridge, I'm taking Tom Heinowski to meet a couple

who've taken on the renovation of a disused house

we've featured before on Britain's Empty Homes.

They should have some priceless advice for him

for when he finds his family pad.

Tom, this is the property I want you to see.

On first glance, actually, there's some similarities here.

The size, the shape of it, the length of it,

and it's a former farmhouse. It's grade 2 listed.

It's had a huge overhaul, a massive renovation by Robin and Isobel,

who are waiting inside for us, so shall we go and say hello?

Yeah, let's.

Robin and Isobel Edwards took a leap of faith

when they bought this grade 2 listed house with adjoining barn in 2008

for just over £300,000.

When we first saw the house, it'd been empty for four or five years.

It was quite obvious there was a huge amount to do,

from top to bottom. I mean,

the rising damp was drowning the woodworm,

it was that sort of house, really.

They owned the house for two years while they planned the renovation,

then they started on the nine-month build

getting their hands dirty in the process.

The project itself is all-consuming and you don't have to be talented.

Even I can knock plaster off walls, so we used to come over

and work an eight-hour day here, every day.

In total, they spent around £230,000

making this once-rundown place into their perfect home.

There is this feeling that we've restored

what was once a lovely house,

and the renovation's brought it back to life again.

This is something which we'll pass on to the next generation.

Here is a wonderful house and we had a part in saving it.

It's a good feeling.

Having been through a major renovation,

I hope Robin and Isobel will be able to offer some inspiration to Tom

for his next home.

Guys, this is an amazing place.

I didn't expect all this space as you walk round this corner.

I'm sure it wasn't always this way though, so take us

right back to the beginning. What state was this old farmhouse in

when you bought it?

Well, it was pretty derelict, really. There was nothing here.

It needed top-to-toe renovation.

It was a major project from the start.

It's quite a personal thing, what makes you choose a house.

Any ideas or any advice, how you start to narrow down that search?

What should Tom and Katie be thinking about?

We had a top ten points that we wanted in a house.

Yes. We actually made up that list from looking at properties.

The more houses you look at, the more you think,

"That's definitely something I don't want," so you don't necessarily have

a list of things you want, but you'll come into places and say,

"Ah, that's definitely something I don't want in my house."

Also, I suppose there's a gut instinct

when you find the right place. You just sort of know.

I think you do. I think within 15 minutes of being in a house,

it's got to feel right to you, and this one felt completely right to me.

I got more and more excited as I went through the rooms

and when I got up to the hayloft, which at that point

you had to climb a ladder up on the outside to get up to it,

I turned around, looked at the view, it made me cry.

I thought, this is definitely the right house.

I think the other thing is you need to have a perception

of where you want to get to and how you're going to get there

in terms of the style and how you live as a family.

Do you want it open plan or do you need smaller rooms,

a television room for the children or whatever.

I love this room. This room's fantastic

and I think the open plan idea for me works and yes,

it's really nice for the children to be able to have an area

to play in perhaps, but actually,

it's nice to have an area you can have as a family.

That's the point. This is what you need to examine.

When you take on an empty property, you can make it any way you want.

If you know that and if you start examining your life

to know what rooms you need and how you want to operate,

I suppose you're halfway there.

It's amazing in here but I'm extremely keen to see more.

Shall we wander through and have a look? Lead the way.

This is the hayloft.

What a space. I know one of Tom's worries,

as much as he has any worries on this,

is that he might start something and run out of money,

run out of time, or just muck it up, never finish it.

What tips or advice have you got about scheduling

and how you stay on top of a project?

It's always the 64,000 question that,

but I think you've got to be meticulous in your planning

to all the tasks that need doing, and try and cost them somehow.

You can't just go blindly ahead because you will run out of money

-very quickly, I'm sure.

-Also, it's quite useful

if you're living close by.

We rented a cottage in Axbridge, so that if there were some problem,

the builders could call us and five minutes later we could be here

sorting out whatever the problem is.

I sense you'd quite like to be quite close, family permitting.

One of the things we were discussing

was perhaps taking a caravan onto site

and having that motivation then to move into something solid,

something permanent.

How does this strike you because I know you quite like the idea

of having quite a contemporary, modern home, but do you find

-this quite attractive as well?

-I really do.

I love the fact that you've got the original building on show

whilst actually achieving something that a lot of people try to achieve

when they're building a house from scratch.

Guys, thank you so much for showing us round. It's been a pleasure

to see this really unusual but beautiful old farmhouse.

Great advice as well so thank you very much.

-It's a pleasure.

-Thank you very much.

Back in Cardiff, empty property officer Steve Reed

is returning to a place he's dealt with in the past.

The previous owner's attempts to extend and remodel this bungalow

had left it structurally unsound.

Then after he passed away, his family were unable to deal with it

so the council sold it at auction on their behalf.

Within a year, there could be someone actually living in there

and this blight on the neighbourhood will be gone.

Today, Steve's meeting the surveyor Martin Plow,

who's working on the build, and the new owner, Moslaur Rahman.

It's looking a bit different than the last time I came here.

It is, that's it. You know it more than I do.

-It's going to change now more as it goes along.

-Yeah.

Looking at it now, remembering how it was,

you must have had some sort of a vision of what it could be.

I'm a local resident here so I quite well know this site itself.

It's been in my mind always to do some sort of small development

so it's an opportunity that I grabbed and it was quite a job

getting through the planning, but eventually we got through

and now hopefully I can get to the end of it.

Obviously, the work has started. What are the plans for it?

The original bungalow is built from a clinker material.

The previous owners decided to adapt some of that

so there are structural issues there.

We've had to take the whole of the building down.

We're going to provide them with a traditionally built pair

-of semi-detached bungalows.

-This is a big challenge you've taken on.

It is quite a big challenge but nothing comes without effort.

I'm going to enjoy doing it.

Any chance I could see the plans now,

-we can have a little look and a walk around?

-Certainly.

This has been a long running case for Steve

and he wants to get people living here as soon as possible

so he's keen to see how the project is progressing.

I can actually see parts of the original house.

It's a shame, really, that it all has to come down because,

as you can see from here, you can see fireplaces still there.

It'll pay off in the end and once it's all demolished,

two new houses put in its place to everybody's benefit.

That's right, absolutely.

Ah, right.

What we're looking at, ground floor,

we've got a bedroom, kitchen, dining room, lounge.

First floor, we've got the two bedrooms, bathroom and an en-suite.

The design of it really is in keeping with the other bungalows

of the street. Brickwork and render, traditional slated roofs,

then dormer windows at the first floor

to give the aspect from the first floor bedroom.

What are your plans once the development is finished?

If the market is good and it's picked up, I'd probably sell it.

-If not and I can afford it, I'd like to hold on to it.

-Sure, yeah.

Let the market raise and take the opportunity from there on.

As Steve's been involved with this case

since before the new renovation started,

he'll monitor the work being carried out through to its completion.

The timescales are about 10 months so what I'll do,

I'll come back in 10 or 11 months and hopefully both properties

will be finished and there'll be families in both.

Since Steve's visit,

the bungalow has been demolished and work has started

on building the two semi-detached homes which will replace it.

I've been with Tom who's aiming to buy a rundown house

and transform it into a perfect family home.

He's been getting some invaluable advice from a couple

who've been through that very experience.

Tom, how have you found today? What perspective has it given you

on empty properties and the possibility of you

being able to take one on?

It's given me confidence that I could do it.

I think that's important.

They've achieved something beyond whatever they thought was possible.

I saw a potential in that building this morning,

but I didn't see this and there's no reason why you couldn't do this

with the kind of thing that we looked at.

You're looking at properties now with new eyes and new experience

that you can see things you wouldn't have seen before?

Definitely. You can look at something and see beyond

just the immediate potential of what's there and perhaps look

at how we can expand it and make it more suitable for our needs.

You go away now energised, enthused.

Is this hunt for an empty property really on, does it start here?

I think it has to start here.

It has to start somewhere and now and here

is as good a place for it to start as any.

From everything you've seen, do you believe this is right for you?

Do you believe it's right for you, your family,

-something you can actually do?

-Definitely something we can do.

I think we'd get so much more from restoring a property

than we would from just buying something that's sterile and new.

There's so much character in this and yet they've managed to achieve

a modern living space at the same time.

-Right. Plenty of inspiration, plenty of ideas to take away.

-Really.

Look, I wish you all the best with it. It's a big property search

you've got on your hands, but I'm sure you'll do a great job

-and I hope you rescue an empty property soon.

-Thanks, Joe.

I think this place has given Tom loads of ideas

when it comes to his search for a vacant property.

Sometimes, when all the options are out there in front of you,

it can be really difficult knowing exactly where to start.

I really think today has given him

a much clearer vision of what he can achieve.

I've no doubt that before long, Tom and Katie will find

their ideal empty property and transform it

into that long awaited family home.

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