[user104658]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

Not sure about claiming it, they should via council tax records be able to trace ownership or next of kin and maybe charge a finders fee?

There are literally millions of houses across Europe for which ownership has been "lost". Someone, somewhere is probably entitled to them but basically the owners have either died with no next of kin or with untraceable next of kin, or often, the owner has simply left (e.g. left the country) and has no intention of ever returning, or of being traced.

Ideal scenario really, would be that if they have been abandonned for that long, the council could take them and fix them up as council housing, and then if a rightful owner does eventually come forward (which is highly unlikely) then they could either be bought out for the value of the property at the time it was seized (which is unlikely to be huge due to levels of disrepair) or, if they want, they could agree for the council to keep the rights to letting it out and receive a cut of the rent payments.


There was a really nice 3-bed house just around the corner from me when I lived in England; completely overgrown, windows smashed, a tree actually growing in through one window. I talked to an older guy who had been living in the area all of his life and he told me that it had been empty for something like 15 years; the owner had simply upped and left and no one had ever been seen there since. The house was rapidly heading towards being simply worthless. It's a tragic waste.

Similar situation with a huge 5 bed house next door to my wife's house when she was at Uni. Owner had died and left it to some nephew or other, who was absolutely loaded, lived abroad, and simply wasn't interested in it. It was just sitting there... still had dish cloths in the kitchen window. For year after year .