Dan Kelly and Family Britain's Empty Homes

Up and down the country,

there are empty properties just waiting to be brought back to life.

I'll be finding out why

and what you can do to rescue a home for yourself.

We'll be following the empty property officers whose job it is to

track down the owners of forgotten houses and get them back into use.

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

more about our housing stock, our history, and why

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

In remote parts of the countryside,

empty properties can end up unloved and abandoned for many years.

And if you can find one, well, that's only the job half-done

because doing up an empty home can be a genuine labour of love.

On today's show, a family come together to rescue a derelict

Victorian cottage in Herefordshire.

I had a phone call from Dan on Valentine's Day and he just said,

"We've bought a house."

A spectacular 16th century manor house in Portsmouth is being

turned into homes after being empty for eight years.

First impressions were, "It's not too bad, it's OK."

But the more we discover about it, the more difficult the challenge is.

And one of Britain's empty property officers who's on a mission

to bring abandoned buildings in Enfield back into use.

It's believed that there may be rats living there, foxes...

The neighbours just want to see a resolution,

they want to see the house occupied again.

Head teacher Clare Kelly has worked in Dubai for

the last three years, but is looking for a home in the UK.

Her younger brother, Dan, and mum, Jenny, started

looking for a renovation project near their homes in Herefordshire.

And when they discovered a derelict Victorian cottage, they knew

it would make a perfect home for Clare, but it came with a bonus.

I had a phone call from Dan on Valentine's Day and he just said,

"We've bought a house

"and guess what? You've got a chapel as well!"

The family bought the cottage and chapel for ?183,000.

They cleverly plan to renovate both

and use the money from the sale of the finished chapel to fund

Clare's cottage and, hopefully, make a profit too.

The Methodist chapel was built in the 1860s by two sisters,

who owned the cottage at the time.

Um, the chapel, in my understanding,

has fell into disuse in the 1950s.

'It's a family affair.

'Clare's mum, Jenny, will be overseeing the budget,

'whilst brother Dan and father Jim, both experienced renovators,

'will be getting hands-on with the project.'

Dad and Dan will do all the work on the house and then, hopefully,

we'll be able to use the chapel to sort of offset their input.

I'm obviously sat in sunny Dubai with my feet up,

whilst they're in the cold British winter doing all the hard work,

so I'd really like there to be something for them

to get out of it at the end as well.

'They plan to extend the cottage,

'to create a three-bedroom detached house.'

The front aspect of the property will be retained almost

exactly how it is now, because I think it is absolutely charming.

'It will be a team effort to get Clare into the cottage on schedule

'and Dan, who's also a teacher, is expecting some challenges ahead.'

There's going to be disagreements. There will be.

You know, that's just sort of human nature,

but, I mean, we didn't go into this with our eyes shut, you know?

They were firmly open in terms of that we would work together.

I think that we're all excited about it.

I'm really hoping that next summer when I come home, I'll be able

to say to friends, "Come and stay in my new house." That's the plan.

We're not a particularly patient family...

I'm probably more patient than you.

Yeah, on this one you're going to have to be as well, because, you

know, when I say 12 months,

you know, it could be a little bit longer.

Clare, her brother, Dan, and mum, Jenny, are going to tell me

more about their joint venture.

Morning, I'm Joe. Hi, Jenny. Clare. Dan, how are you?

Now, this is a slightly unusual situation,

a bit of a family effort going on.

Um...whose house is this?

Um, I suppose it's mine.

What's that over there?

That's an old Methodist chapel which was bought as one lot,

so the plan is possibly to do something with

that in the future after we've sorted my sister's house out.

Goodness! OK, well, look, it's a cute little thing from the outside.

Shall we go and have a look inside and see what you're going to do?

It won't take long. It's not very big!

Like many period cottages,

this tiny one-bed home is not generous in size.

Clare is concerned whether

she can make the space work as a modern home.

What were your first impressions when you came here?

Actually, it's small, but it's in a pretty good state, isn't it?

Yes, it was in better condition than I expected it to be,

but it was much, much smaller and I was just like...

"Wow!"

This is classified as what? A one bedroom? One bedroom.

You've got this room, exactly the same upstairs - which is

essentially the bedroom - and then through there, a small kitchen.

Stairs upstairs to the bathroom.

And what is the plan? You're going to extend at the back, are you?

Yes, it's going... These walls will come out.

It's not going exactly mirrored. It's sort of, um, a slight L shape.

And upstairs then, you're going to have a big master bedroom

and a couple of guest bedrooms, that's the idea?

There's three bedrooms, they're all of reasonable size, but

none of them are massive. OK, well, there's not a lot to look round,

but shall we just poke our heads through this way?

The interesting challenge here is how to create a double-storey

extension whilst retaining the character of the cottage.

Here we are in what is effectively the master bedroom,

but also the only bedroom. Uh, and things like the roof and

the wooden beams, are they going to be staying, ideally?

We'll keep as much of it as we can in terms of the timber.

A little bit of character is good.

Yeah, I mean, some of the woodwork is actually very good.

Now, a lot of work ahead.

Who's going to be doing the lion's share of it?

Mostly Dan and his dad.

Right. Obviously, specialist jobs, we'll get people in.

But you're a teacher, so you can't be spending the next year... No.

..doing this project. How does that work then?

Your dad takes over, or...?

No, it'll literally be weekends, evenings,

so we've sort of given ourselves 12 months to get this

finished from once the planning comes through.

Right, so 12 months for the cottage. Yeah.

And then the chapel, that's the idea at the moment? Yeah.

It seems the family has the extension

and modernisation all planned out,

but with Dan taking on these two properties

and juggling a full-time job, has he bitten off more than he can chew?

As a family, you've got some experience of renovations

and even sort of building your own house, Dan.

What's the challenge here? How is this different?

It's different on a couple of levels, really.

Um, I had a huge amount of help in terms of building my own house,

you know, and it was just getting a bit of a taste for it.

Um, I'll be more involved in a way in building Clare's house,

but also the chapel in the grounds, that's going to be an unknown,

really, so we're not sure in terms of what hidden dangers

and pitfalls there are in terms of that, but that's the excitement.

That's the difference, really. What I think is going to be useful

is to take you to meet a couple who've been through this before.

It'll be interesting to get some advice from them

on how they managed, but also the property,

like here, was a very small cottage

and very difficult to live in and was extended.

So, lots of similarities there and hopefully some inspiration as well.

So, does that sound useful? Yeah. Yes, it does. Perfect.

I think this is quite a tricky project.

First of all, there are two properties here, not just one,

but also, doing a lot of the work themselves,

it could be difficult for Dan to find the time, given he's got

a full-time job and a young family,

to make sure this cottage is finished within 12 months.

It's going to be really good for them to meet a couple who've done

just that, who've taken on a small agricultural worker's cottage

and transformed it into a modern home.

Sadly, not all of Britain's forgotten buildings are rescued

and brought back to life, but local councils are taking action

and it's the job of empty property officers to track these

buildings down and work to bring them back into the community.

In his 12 years of experience in Enfield, Dave Carter

has brought over 600 abandoned abodes back into use.

I'm on my way to visit a property which is in one of the more

affluent areas of Enfield.

I've received several complaints about the state of the overgrown

garden, and the neighbours generally are not happy with

the state of the property. Um, they just want to see a resolution.

They want to see the house occupied again.

Dave wants to deal with these complaints,

but first he has to track down the owner.

However, he has no idea where they are.

I came here a few weeks ago and immediately what strikes me is,

obviously, the car on the drive.

Um, I'm wondering whether...

somebody might be here. It's quite a new car.

Anyway, I think I'd better check if there's anybody in first of all.

Hm. Well, that's interesting as well.

That lock looks as if it's been changed recently.

It's...unscratched, still sparkling.

It seems that someone may have visited this house recently.

Dave goes round the back to see if the garden's been tended to. Ah!

Well, that's a fox's heaven in here.

It's just a complete mess.

Well, I'm not going to go hunting for any foxes,

because if they are there I won't disturb them.

I'm more concerned today with trying to find the owner.

I'll call it a day at this end of the property.

Dave canvasses the neighbourhood to see if anyone can tell him

about the owner or the car in the driveway.

Hello!

I'm trying to...um...

investigate the house a couple of doors along.

The lady who lived there, did you know her?

I knew her, she used to walk around and everything.

Um, and then she was taken into a home.

Unfortunately, you know, I haven't seen or heard from her since. Right.

Sorry to have bothered you. Oh, that's OK.

Thanks for the information. No problem. Take care.

Dave carries on knocking on doors, but there are no more leads.

I have heard she was in a home. Right.

And we've lived here a long, long time, but I've never seen her.

All right, well, it's been... I can't help you.

..interesting speaking to you. OK, all right. Bye-bye. Thank you, bye.

It's a dead end, until the next-door neighbour comes to talk to Dave.

Hiya, I'm Dave Carter from Enfield Council.

It turns out that the neighbour's daughter has been using

the empty driveway to park her car, but that's not all.

I did come and visit the property about a month ago.

Have you noticed any activity recently?

I get the feeling the locks may have been changed?

Yeah, I think we came home about three weeks ago

and Barnet Council were here.

Three weeks ago?

About three weeks ago, because she is in a home in Barnet.

Right, cos I...that's another thing you've covered for me then.

Do you know...the address or the name of the care home? No, not at all.

Not known, right.

I just want to find out who is responsible for this house. Yeah.

You've been very, very helpful. Thank you. Nice to meet you.

Hopefully I'll get to the bottom of it. Yeah.

I think today's visit has been very successful indeed.

I've gleaned that the owner is alive, that she's in a care home,

so I know I can go down that angle.

There's been activity at the house. Someone's changed the locks. Who?

I don't know, but somebody is involved.

So, I'm confident that it shouldn't be too long before

I can solve this mystery.

And since filming, Dave has located the owner and is working

alongside Barnet Council to bring the house back into use.

If you've noticed abandoned properties in your area

and fancy the challenge of taking one on,

contact local estate agents, neighbourhood watch groups

and local shop-owners to see if they have any information,

or get in touch with your local empty property officer.

In East London, Richard and Helen Portchmouth

were lucky enough to find an old garage for sale

and set about transforming it into an amazing modern home.

In 2000, Richard and Helen were searching in London

for a property to house their growing family.

Unable to afford their ideal home,

they were looking for a site they could adapt.

We had been looking, uh...

for probably over two years for a site.

They're very hard to find and, on this occasion,

I'd been out all Saturday afternoon.

The weather was very sort of showery,

big thunderstorms around,

so I was cycling as quick as I could to get back home and then,

out of the corner of my eye, I saw this name-board on site

and I was just completely mesmerised.

He came all the way back, soaking wet on his bike and, you know,

we drove straight out there.

I couldn't believe he spotted it.

Two disused garages formerly used by market stall traders to store

fruit and veg...

they now form a stunning contemporary residence.

The whole place was, um, very, very rundown

and decrepit and, um...

very, very sort of basic whitewashed walls, brickwork downstairs

and, uh, the roof timbers were half sort of rotten

and an old corrugated iron roof on the top, but, also,

they had a sort of character about it.

Richard knew he would create their ideal family home,

but, initially, Helen had doubts.

To start off with, I was a bit, um...

uneasy about the scale of the project cos I knew it would

be a huge undertaking and we were expecting a baby,

but we started getting very excited about the whole project.

Richard and Helen bought both units for ?75,000 and spent

approximately ?100,000 on renovating one unit into a three-bedroom home.

The build wasn't without its challenges.

The real problem was time.

Richard was...was absolutely always either at work or on the site, so,

you know, Richard didn't get to see much of our daughter

for about...uh, two or three years, really.

Yeah, when I look back on it, I think...yes,

I'm not quite sure how we did it, but we did it.

The family moved into the property in 2003,

but it took them a further two years to finish it.

The eye-popping exterior is a folded sheet of galvanised steel

and has made the house a local landmark.

Not a sort of pretty, little mews,

it's actually quite a tough, working mews

and we thought the materiality should reflect that

and that's why were interested in using the metal cladding.

So we can just refer to it as the metal house on the corner.

The build was... It took two years and then we moved in.

We couldn't live on the ground floor when we first moved in,

actually, cos it was still boarded up

and the downstairs was effectively a workshop.

Despite their challenging journey, Helen and Richard couldn't be

happier they took a risk on such an unusual space.

This site and the house, everything rolled into one, really.

It offers us so much, I couldn't quite picture us anywhere else.

Resuscitating old buildings and bringing them

back into use isn't just a way of creating new homes.

Restoring a period property is a way of preserving our past

and taking care of our heritage for generations to come.

The South-east of England has the second largest number of empty

properties in the whole country, and here in Portsmouth

there are 4,500 properties that have lain empty for six months or more.

Well, I've come to see one in particular,

one with a very grand yet supposedly spooky history.

In the middle of a 1960s' housing estate sits

Wymering Manor House, a grade-two listed stately home.

Locals have banded together forming a trust to save

it from dereliction, bring it into community use, and create new homes.

'Andy Mason is involved in the project

'and has agreed to give me a tour.' How are you?

Andy, this is somewhat an unexpected surprise.

It's not what you'd expect to find walking around here.

What are we looking at? Well, absolutely, no.

We have a house of 1581 with Victorian additions,

um, in the middle of a housing estate.

1581, I mean, that makes it, what, Tudor? Elizabethan?

That must be one of the oldest houses around here. It is indeed.

It's the oldest domestic building in Portsmouth. Wow. Yes.

It's looking a bit sorry for itself. How long has it been empty for?

It's been empty for about eight years. About eight years?!

It was a youth hostel before that. Oh, I see.

All right, let's go and have a look inside, shall we? Yes.

There you are. Very grand.

What do we have here, then?

Well, this, we think, is the original front door to the house.

That's a significant front door, isn't it?!

It's a fairly heavy-duty door, yes.

So, first of all, tell me about the trust.

We were founded in January this year.

Our sole focus is Wymering Manor, to conserve what we have here

and bring it back into sustainable use.

But how concerned were you when you first saw this?

I mean, it can't be that far from being unsaveable.

I'm actually more concerned now than I was

when I walked in through the front door. Oh, really?

Our first impressions were, "It's not too bad, it's OK." But the more

we discover about it, the more difficult the challenge is.

Structurally, we have the problem in the beam where the house has moved.

The 18th century saw a lot of work done where the house was

refaced in brick

and the knock-on effect of putting the skin of brick on has been

that it's created the perfect environment for deathwatch beetle,

which has thrived in this house.

Oh, really? So, deathwatch beetle eats into woodwork, is that right?

It eats the heartwood of the oak frame.

And this building is an oak-framed building.

It is, yes, what's left of it!

Now, it's been empty for seven or eight years. Yes.

That comes with the slight caveat in that there's supposed to be

a little bit of a presence here.

Yes, we are quite well known for the supernatural presence that's here.

What are the supposed occurrences here?

There's a nun up in the roof, apparently.

There's a choir of nuns that's alleged to

walk across the grand hall at midnight.

And have you had any personal experience

with any of these apparitions?

I've not, personally. Right.

I've not, but there are many who claim to have done so.

Ghosts aside, what are the plans for humans?

How would this space be used down here?

Well, we're very keen to bring the community into the house.

I think that's going to be the primary use for the downstairs.

Uh, we're looking at education, perhaps training

and general community uses.

What difference would it make for the area then

if this can be a community space? I hope it'll reinvigorate the area.

The area needs money spending on it, it needs the provision

of facilities and if we can start here, hopefully more will follow.

Plans for the upper levels of the manor are still in the early

stages of development, but the hope is they'll eventually be

turned into flats that will fund the renovation.

It's a bit of a rabbit warren up here, isn't it?

It certainly is, very easy to get lost in.

So, how would you use this space?

This is totally different to the big open rooms downstairs.

I think some sort of residential accommodation up here would be ideal.

Yeah, has it served that purpose in the past?

I can see sort of en suite things...

It has indeed, it's been the caretaker's flat.

So, what is the projected cost of this project?

I mean, there's a lot of work to do.

I'd say we're looking at, at least 2 million, possibly 3,

maybe even more. Wow. Yes.

Forget the hauntings, that would turn you white as a sheet

those kind of figures!

Um, that's a HUGE amount of money.

Is that going to be raised through grants or...?

Where is that kind of money going to come from?

We're principally looking at grants. It is an incredibly complex project.

I can see why so many other people were scared off,

but if anyone's going to make it work, it's the Wymering Manor Trust,

so I really do wish you the best of luck with it. Thank you.

You're very kind.

I suppose, over time,

this grand old manor house has been somewhat marooned,

its land gradually sold off around it until, for the last seven

or eight years, it's just been sat here, empty and forgotten.

But it can't be allowed to rot and disintegrate,

it needs to be saved and that's what the trust is all about -

preserving the building and celebrating its heritage.

And it's not just about the building.

The fact is, this is going to be a community space, which is

so important because it means finally the Manor House

will once again relate back to the local area.

I'm with the Kellys in Herefordshire.

They're renovating an empty Victorian cottage so sister Clare

can have a home near her family. I'm going to introduce them

to a couple who've done something very similar.

Right, here we are. This is the place we want you to see.

First impressions?

Similar in size. It looks bigger. It is a little bit bigger.

Possibly a bit bigger, yeah.

It's been taken on by Tim and Susan and they've made it into a very

sort of workable living space, so, shall we go and say hello?

Yeah, absolutely. That's a good idea. Great.

When Tim and Susan Organ found this cottage nestled in the heart of

the Brecon Beacons, they knew they could create a very special home.

We'd been living in France for ten years

and we decided that we'd like to move back to the UK -

grandchildren are arriving and we'd be closer to the family.

And this is the area that I personally have always wanted to live

in, because of my childhood and the lovely times I used to spend here.

I suppose it was a bit of a dream.

And here we are.

When Tim discovered the cottage, it had been empty for the best

part of a year and was in need of complete renovation.

The building here was used in conjunction with the house

next door as the place where their guests would stay,

but it had minimal, um, sanitary fittings, um,

it didn't have a kitchen, um,

it wasn't a home in itself.

The entire renovation cost ?100,000 and has taken five years to

create a stunning cottage with a contemporary extension that's

doubled the size of their home.

Our approach was always that the little cottage should be

the anchor of the site, it should be, in effect,

the dominant element in the composition of the buildings here.

Like the Kellys, Tim and Susan also got their family on board to help.

We're lucky because, of course, Sam is very practical -

he's the youngest one -

and he did quite a bit of the work here.

And then my eldest son, Charlie, um,

he came and built the, er, the new bit.

The build process has never been difficult, it's been great fun.

It's everything about it.

The light, especially the light, I think.

Tim's passionate about bringing light into buildings.

This room provides sunshine all day.

We see it rise in the morning over the top of the Brecon Beacons

and we see it go down over the hills of the west.

So, we're very lucky in connecting with

the landscape all day.

I'm hoping Tim and Susan's home will show the Kellys what can be

achieved with a small space.

Lovely to be here and thank you for having us in.

It is quite a small cottage. Tell me about it.

What have you done to it since you took it on,

how have you made it suitable for your needs?

Well, the important thing is to maximise the use of every

square inch and, uh,

it's what I call caravan architecture, where you actually

squeeze in everything that's important to you in one space.

Does it encourage you that actually this size can be made to

feel pretty spacious, actually, pretty light. It does, yeah.

It's very similar in size

and it's quite nice to see, it feels quite spacious compared to...

You go into the cottage at the moment...

But I think it's the light

and that's what I think has been done so well here,

which we're going to have to be quite careful with, I think,

is making sure we get enough light into the house. Yeah.

You can use top light as we did here at the top of the stairs, so that

acts as a south light, it penetrates down to the kitchen, even.

But that's a good point, cos it's double-storey in that

little sort of well there, OK.

Well, as you say, it is lovely and light in here.

Shall we see a bit more? Yeah.

They've cleverly married period features with contemporary design,

but it took time to get the balance right.

What were your biggest challenges here?

Patience.

Patience! Patience and planning - the Ps. Yeah.

Patience overall, you know, as they say, doing it, um, the right way.

I mean, we did do one or two things twice.

Is there any advice you could give these guys to stop them

doing something twice?

You know, give yourself a break every now and again

so you can come back to it anew.

Uh, you can immerse yourself in it to such an extent that it becomes

a burden and it should never be that, I mean,

if you've got the enthusiasm and you make the time.

That sounds like very important advice.

Take a step back and maybe, Clare, that can be your role

from afar to be reminding your brother to take a day off.

Yeah, I think Dan sometimes does need to be told to just sort of,

like, stop, take a step back. You know?

Because he does get involved and gives 100 percent

and he gets completely, sort of,

engrossed in what he is doing and, you know,

sometimes you just need to take a step back.

Well, guys, thank you so much for showing us round. Yes, thank you.

It really is quite a unique place and it's been lovely to see

it today and thank you very much for your time, yeah.

Brilliant, thanks very much. Thanks very much.

I loved Tim and Susan's calm and stress-free approach to renovation

and I hope today has given the Kelly family some food for thought.

Has today been useful?

I mean, seeing a cottage of similar size

and seeing how it's been transformed?

Walking into their kitchen-dining area today and having the light

and sort of clean lines and finish,

it just gives me a little bit of hope that we can achieve that.

And, finally, I think, you've done it before, you've been there,

you've done renovation programmes,

but it doesn't hurt to have someone saying,

"Step back every now and again, take a little bit of time to yourself."

No, I think that advice is good advice.

There were times where the mistakes I made in my place was

because I was tired and it was a case of just,

"I need to finish this."

Where as it would have been better just to take a couple of days off

and just, you know, just sit back and relax and just think, "It will

"be better done next week," rather than making sure it's done today.

Well, guys, you're clearly on the same hymn sheet.

You make a great team as a family, you know

what to expect from each other and you have two wonderful and actually

very unique properties, so I really do wish you the best of luck.

Thank you. Thanks. I hope it goes well.

Every empty property presents a different challenge

when the decision is taken to restore it,

and yet they all require drive, determination, ambition

and teamwork, and that's what I think this family has in abundance.

It is going to be difficult, but I'm sure, before long, they will

together create the perfect little country cottage for Clare.

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