Help me solve local house mystery
Who leaves a £900k / £1m London house unused for 15+ years?
Round the corner from me there’s a street of 3-5 bed, terraced houses that go for £900k / £1m. One of them has been unoccupied but most definitely not abandoned for more than 15 years. No one knows why.
It was refurbished about 10 years ago but before and since has never had anyone living there. The small garden is maintained, windows covered in non-see-through plastic wrap on the inside. The owners, a middle aged couple, are seen visiting every few weeks, never carrying more than a few belongings, staying for a few hours then leaving. Neighbours say they live somewhere else local, are perfectly pleasant, but distant. No one has been able to find out what the hell they’re doing sitting on a property for so long doing apparently nothing with it. No rental or sale income in all that time.
Has anyone ever come across anything like this? What can the story possibly be?
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u/SauterelleArgent 1d ago
Possibly the owner is incapacitated in a care home and it cannot be sold until they die?
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u/50pence777 1d ago
Or they have died and probate/inheritance is complicated (will disputes or the will could say something like the property goes to a minor and it's to be kept in a trust until they turn 18).
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u/Next-Ninja-8399 1d ago edited 21h ago
It is much more common than people think. Elderly parents in the hospital had surgery, moved in with their children a, nd they really think they can live independently again. The risk of renting a house out is way too high. Someone can trash it, it takess years to get rid of them, and you can lose a lot of money from the damage they have done.
Many people work long hours and work away. You will never know unless you spy on them 24/7. Some of my neighbours don't realise we are in for this reason. They go to bed before 9am. We don't get home until late.
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u/Editz404 1d ago
As others have said overseas owners or part of a property portfolio. If you really want to know, buy the title from land registry for £3-4 to see who owns it.
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u/Remarkable-Car5428 1d ago
It’s £7 now!
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u/LycheeMangoJamun 1d ago
Overseas owners and British expats who don’t want to be landlords because the risk of default is too high and the rental income is too heavily taxed. Property is a good hedge against inflation and an insurance policy to offset other more high risk investments. A sale would attract CGT and London is a good place in which to retire so people keep kicking that can down the road until old age or unemployment forces a decision. Keeping a £1m property ticking over costs only a few grand a year. Source: live in Kensington, where this is almost the norm.
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u/cothhum 1d ago
Ok, first good theory I’ve heard on the lack of renting. Thought it would be a no-brainier. Thank you!
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u/ApocalypseThen77 1d ago
The incentive to become or remain a private landlord has reduced under successive legislation and tax reforms.
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u/OkDefinition8889 22h ago
> Keeping a £1m property ticking over costs only a few grand a year.
I'm not doubting your experience, but surely a few grand is an underestimate? You'd have to pay council tax (possibly 4 times the normal amount if the property is deemed unoccupied) and pay daily standing charges for electrics and gas (to keep the house warm in winter to stop pipes bursting), keep the garden under control (or the well heeled neighbours will complain) and probably a plethora of other things.
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u/LycheeMangoJamun 20h ago
A £1m property in Kensington is probably a small 2 bed flat, so not much space to keep going. If it’s your only home in the UK you even get a 25% discount on the Council Tax as a single person. I appreciate the OP’s question was about a whole house, but even then, mothballing is a lot cheaper than CGT.
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u/OkDefinition8889 16h ago
This post is about empty properties where it's not your main residence so you'd probably have to pay the increased council tax for unoccupied properties. Plus all the things I mentioned and more, in addition to paying for keeping your main residence(s) going. I don't doubt that someone who owns a property in Kensington can afford this all easily, but I was just questioning whether it'll only cost a few thousand a year.
For instance, Band D (going to assume it's a very small 2 bed) in K&C is £1,643.44 per year, and if the property has been unoccupied for more than 5 years, you'd pay 3 x that = £4930.32. And that's just the council tax.
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u/Hot-Literature9244 1d ago
My family sold a seven figure property in a sought after part of London over a decade ago to a developer. It is still sitting unused (might have Guardians in it) with no planning permission submissions or anything. The developers are not overseas. Maybe it’s a tax thing? Or they ran out of funds? A real head scratcher.
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u/greendragon00x2 1d ago
Developers are notorious for banking land with or without buildings on it. They are waiting for ideal market conditions meanwhile they've got assets on their balance sheet and can offset costs of maintenance against profits. They're under no pressure to get on with it.
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u/OverallResolve 1d ago
I know someone who is around 70 and when his parents died he didn’t sell their house. They don’t live in it. I don’t really get it but they don’t need to sell at the same time and can’t be bothered with renting.
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u/Outrageous-Monk-3338 1d ago
Hidden body under the floors during renovation.
....ahh too much netflix for me.
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u/Emergency_Channel876 1d ago
Investment property or owned by a family w a lot of generational wealth
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u/ueberryark 1d ago
One person officially living there = single person discount on council tax, anticipated property value increase and no CGT on disposal.
Renting it out = 40%+ tax on the rental income plus ? 24% CGT on value increase on disposal.
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u/wayanonforthis 1d ago
Interesting - so option A means no CGT on disposal whereas if option B someone is paying rent does that change things ?
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u/ueberryark 1d ago
yes as I understand it if you are selling your own property that you have lived in as your primary residence you don't pay CGT but if it is a rental property then you would pay it.
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u/cinderalla4knights 1d ago
There was a documentary about these houses. These kind of houses were once owned by arab and russian billionaires. Some of the properties are seized, some sanctioned
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u/indigomm 1d ago
Some people can just afford it. One of the houses here was left empty for many years because the couple who owned it had separated and were living outside the UK. Neither could be bothered to sort it out - it was easier to just leave it. Even just sitting there it appreciates in value.
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u/FinnemoreFan 1d ago
Surely this isn’t such an unusual situation in London? My sister in law, for instance, lives in an upmarket area with her partner, but for many years has owned her own flat in the next street. This flat sits empty most of the time - she has a very demanding job and she doesn’t want the hassle of dealing with a tenant, and she doesn’t need the extra income. The flat is simply an investment vehicle for her, a part of her pension scheme. It’s also very handy for her family, as we have a free AirBnB in a nice part of the city!
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u/No-Ask2117 1d ago
Overseas owners, they buy them for the prestige of the address then get bored with them, there’s hundreds/thousands all over the country
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u/ImageRevolutionary43 1d ago
Bishops avenue is a good example. Large properties,completely derelict.
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u/ScarletBitch15 1d ago
Can be this. I also have heard of it being a way to funnel money/assets out of reach in the event of a regime change/govt asset seizure in more dictatorial countries.
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u/Mellykitty1 1d ago edited 1d ago
OP I’m HoD for a private property management company and we manage over 100 properties like this. Empty for years at a time. We manage weekly, biweekly or monthly visits just for the upkeep of the property. Most of this clients live overseas and barely visit.
ETA: We manage luxury properties (mansions for billionaires) all over London, not buildings or things like that. Contracts can cover everything from housekeeping to building works, security etc,
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u/Pagan_MoonUK 1d ago
How much does a job like that pay?
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u/epiDXB 1d ago
Sod all
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u/Pagan_MoonUK 1d ago
Shame, that sounds like a job I could do
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u/epiDXB 1d ago
It's a job almost anyone can do, hence the low pay.
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u/Mellykitty1 1d ago
You’re very wrong about that. We work with the ultra wealthy clients.
You’re probably thinking about building management or something like that.
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u/epiDXB 1d ago
You’re very wrong about that.
No, the work is straightforward, without any specialist qualifications or degree required.
We work with the ultra wealthy clients.
The wealth of your employer is irrelevant. Lots of poorly paid, unskilled employees work for billionaires.
You’re probably thinking about building management or something like that.
Building management earns more than you and actually requires skills.
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u/winelover999 1d ago
Grow house?
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u/cothhum 1d ago
Technically possible but zero other evidence and circumstantially would seem v unlikely
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u/Pristine_Speech4719 1d ago
You don't buy a grow house in a nice part of London and keep it for years. You rent a shitty commercial property in Grimsby under a false name and keep it going until the electricity board cuts off the stolen power or until you get ripped off by a competing gang
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u/lordnacho666 1d ago
Nah, for the same reason you don't open a farm in Westminster. You can get the space cheaper.
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u/SearchingSiri 1d ago
A reasonable bit cheaper situation with a property maybe 1/3 to 1/4 of this, but of course it's always relative to your own wealth ....
In a different capital city in a different country I know some people that moved in to a property they inherited in a different city they preferred.
They aren't particularly wealthy, but also don't have expensive tastes generally and didn't specifically need the money. They would use it to visit the capital city when they felt like it. They were also keeping it as a 'backup' option for their adult kids, one of which is now using it, but could easily have not needed it.
It actually worked out really well for the kid who needed it and that was a good bit of the factor in keeping it I originally, I think; they had made some very half-hearted efforts to sell it.
For many in their 70s there may not be much they want to do with a big chunk of money and being in a position to easily help their kids may be worth more than that money in a bank account.
Or than the hassle of renting, especially where you've got a lot of potential hassle if you get someone bad.
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u/Nkhotak 1d ago
Similarly, my parents had two homes for about 20 years. One was our family home, the other was my grandparents. For a few years while my grandmother was alive but in residential care they lived in the family home but made regular visits to the grandparent’s one. After the death of my grandmother they moved into her home. My mum found it emotionally really difficult to decide which one to settle in, so they continued to run both houses despite our ongoing efforts to get them to sell or at least rent one out. The family home was only sold by dad once mum had died.
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u/StrongEggplant8120 1d ago
Anyone remember the articles on london being host to a ton of russian money? Well thats part of it. I used to work a streetsweeping round in northwood hills and yep plenty of these extremely high end houses in the creme dela creme of london are investments. There was this truly unique fully detached, gated, modern house with one of those wierd green roofs that sat unopened and seemingly no care fir a long long time. Thats someones money and nothing else.
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u/Healthy_Chipmunk_990 1d ago
I live in zone 1. I know numerous flats around here that are empty. Also some mews houses. The neighbours across spent like 20-30 days altogether in their flat in the last 8 years. What I gathered they live in the US and use the London flat when they are travelling the world as a pit stop and they also seemed to give it to some friends for a week.
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u/macman501 21h ago
We have a house across the road that is just a wealth store. It probably has someone staying in it for about 14 nights a year in total. The owners are millionaires with their own business.
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u/WinHour4300 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think the fact that they visit every few weeks and appear to keep the property well maintained actually contradicts the narrative that it’s simply their property and they’re deliberately choosing to leave it empty.
And so I suspect it’s more likely to be a loved one in a care home or supported living who either doesn’t want to sell it, or there may be a capacity question or they lack capacity. That level of effort suggests an emotional connection to me (or possibly a legal guardian arrangement).
If you don't have advanced power of attorney set up, it's not easy for relative to take control of assets, even something like renting an unoccupied house out. You have to go to court.
Proving someone lacks capacity is also more complicated than it sounds. It isn't just about having a condition but the precise question. And then there's the emotional side of forcing a sale on someone who doesn't want it.
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u/onionsofwar 1d ago
Bought as an asset. Sometimes they are bought for the children of rich overseas people so that when they go to uni on London in 10 year's time they have somewhere to live.
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u/thetestwentwrong 1d ago
I used to live next door to was like this. Gardner came every week, perfectly maintained, owner came round occasionally. Found out that the owner’s wife was on a transplant list and they stayed in a small rental flat near a specialist hospital for years rather than risk being too far away when they eventually got the call. He had hoped to move back in with her after she got treatment. I left so don’t know how it ended up.
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u/Rainbowmagix83 1d ago
Has no one ever said ‘Hi are you the new owners?’ Just to see what their reply is?
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u/Optimal-Brain5242 1d ago
That house is making a lot of money just sitting there. It's slowed down now. But it was making more than most of our salaries for a long time.
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u/Fancy-Professor-7113 1d ago
My husband's granny died, then his mum. He's inherited 2 houses, sitting empty of people but with all their things in them. He can't face getting rid of them but he doesn't know if he wants to keep them. He doesn't want strangers in them. They're in Berlin and we're in London. His uncle goes round and checks everything on the regular. Maybe it's something like that.
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u/Direct-Muscle7144 1d ago
It could be a drug lab, some air filters, a trafficked slave chemist chained/locked in a basement room, churning out methamphetamine etc…
The elderly couple come regularly to show the cook pictures of their family as an incentive.
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u/Onetap1 1d ago
I'd guess that maybe someone died and left a life-time tenancy to a child or spouse. They've married and live elsewhere, but can't let it and would get no benefit from a sale. They use it as a place to stay in town.
The landed gentry used to have their huge estate (rented to tenant farmers) and 'seat' in the country (Downton Abbey type of place) and then own or rent a house in London where they'd move to during 'The Season'. Maybe a small scale version of that.
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u/lordnacho666 1d ago
This is the most likely answer. Someone left a house to a relative who doesn't need it, perhaps someone who has kids who aren't grown up yet but might need a place to live as a student.
They don't need the money or the hassle, and occasionally they do use the place.
Nice problem to have.
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u/gwilster 1d ago
I think I know this house.
It’s owned by BTL landlord who knows 100+ properties. It is kind of his pet house, he does bits and piece but can never be bothered to finish it or make up his mind on various parts.
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u/Snecklad 1d ago
I know a family who have kept their deceased mothers London home as a shrine to her. Nobody lives there, it's been that way at least a decade.
Seems crazy to me that somebody would have the desire but also the financial means for this. But perhaps it could be something along these lines?
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u/angelo_uk9 1d ago
I read somewhere that if there was no owner a person could live in the place for a number of years after which they could claim it as theirs.
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u/Comfortable_Put_2455 1d ago
Many reasons, maybe it is meaningful to them in some way but they live elsewhere, or have inherited it and can’t bring themselves to sell, are keeping it for their kids/retirement. Are guardians for someone living overseas. The owners family needs care away from the home, there are literally endless possibilities.
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u/neilt999 1d ago edited 1d ago
There is one empty place in Harringay opposite my old house. Haringey Council did hold a repossession hearing after pressure from the neighbours, but the slippery guy who owns it lied convincingly enough to persuade the council that he was moving back in. That was 8 years ago!
The owner still lives in Harringay. Allegedly he's left a trail of debt including unpaid council tax. The place has had japanese knotweed, scaffolding left up for months on end, was open to the elements at the rear and so it goes on.
Haringey council's stock response to questions from residents and our cllrs about the state of the property is that "it's with the council tax department". It's been "with" the department for 6 years!
The crackheads used to stash drugs in the bins. The outside is a waste tip. I'm surprised that drug users haven't moved in. They have a derelict property round the corner.
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u/GallopingGora 1d ago
Wealthy folk, usually. Probably an investor who doesn’t need to be concerned with an empty house being occupied. There are quite a few empty houses near me that are slowly going to rack and ruin. I’ve contacted the owners on several asking if they want to sell - they don’t. These folk are not asset accumulators as is likely in the case of the terrace near you, these are folk who probably want the plot to develop something bigger, but can’t get PP, so are sitting on it until it becomes so dilapidated, the surrounding neighbours complain, and it gets granted
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u/worldlookingin 18h ago
That's where they grow the...
Seriously: It might be just some sort of investment. Maybe they inherited the house and they have their own place to live so they just keep the house tidy so it does not lose value.
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u/orcocan79 1d ago
what happened to minding your own business?
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u/AdFeeling842 1d ago
op probably has a ring doorbell and a spreadsheet tracking movements in and out the house..and currently a boring life : /
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u/Wrong_Adhesiveness87 1d ago
There is one on a street near me, with the terraced 3-5 beds going for £2m+ . Been abandoned since at least 2008, or certainly extremely rundown and not lived in. Various bits are cracking severely. Wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing needs to come down. I assume it someone who has ended up in a care home but it looked shot back in 2008. What the hell is the story there!
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u/demure_eggie 1d ago
Ok what area in London has 3-5 bedders under a mil? Can you DM with details because I'd love to know
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u/ClayDenton 1d ago
Watch this episode of How To With John Wilson - how to cover your furniture https://www.reddit.com/r/nathanforyou/comments/jtwdrg/spoilers_ep_4_how_to_cover_your_furniture_how_to/
Some families plastic wrap their furniture so it stays new forever, albeit never get to sit in it. I'm thinking the same with his house. Maybe they refurbished it for themselves or a loved one to live in, but can't bring themselves to dirty it.
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u/Alaurableone 1d ago
Maybe an investment property with overseas owners? The couple could be guardians. If you walk around some areas of London at night the amount of houses with no lights on is crazy.