It has been a bad week for buying houses with an ocean view. Spare a thought for Londoner Sue Diamond who bought Ridgemont House, a six bedroom home in Torquay at auction for £154,000. Six days later most of the garden crashed onto the beach below, leaving the house sitting just 50ft from the edge of the 300ft cliff. It’s safe to say that this might affect the value of the property and the chances of getting planning permission to build on the land.
At Decision Homebuyers we’ve seen our share of disastrous houses, houses that they said could never be sold. In 2007 we were contacted by a couple whose Barnsley home was in a near state of collapse after the foundations were damaged by heavy flooding and rot. The house was sagging and made worrying creaking noises. It was uninhabitable, unsellable and their insurance wasn’t going to cover all of the costs of putting things right. Fortunately they contacted Decision Homebuyers and we were able to make them a realistic cash offer for their property that quickly allowed them to move to a better place. And we were able to sell their old house on to a property developer who carried out extensive renovations and sold the property to a family who needed a home.
According to the charity The Empty Homes Agency, there are currently 762,000 empty homes in England and around half of them have been unoccupied for more than a year. Many of these houses are in bad repair, ranging from poor décor to their being on the point of collapse. But at a time when there is an acute housing shortage, this is a scandal.
We at Decision Homebuyers pride ourselves that we could make a cash offer on any property – even if it was in danger of falling off the edge of a cliff – and find a buyer willing to take on the responsibility of making it habitable again.
“Some homeowners and landlords are in a state of denial about their property. Unable to sell or rent them and unable to afford the cost of renovation, they sometimes allow them to stand empty,“ says Decision Homebuyers’s Amanda Hoyles. “This is a waste for everyone concerned: they could get immediate cash and allow someone else to take over and undertake repairs. Empty houses aren’t good for neighbourhoods. And at a time when there’s an acute shortage of affordable housing, they aren’t good for the country.”
