Housing Regeneration

Services for Council tenants affected by demolition

Property demolition - tenants responsibilities

Once you know the date you will be moving, you need to let your Local Housing Office know as soon as possible.

Disconnecting appliances

If you have any gas appliances, you should contact a Corgi registered gas engineer to arrange for the disconnection. This is because supply pipes must be property sealed.

Similarly, a qualified electrician should disconnect any electrical appliances, such as showers or washing machines. You can claim this payment back within your Disturbance Claim as long as you have a valid receipt.

Don't forget to arrange final readings to be taken from gas and electricity metres. You will probably need to give at least 48 hours notice to the gas and electricity companies.

Housing benefit and council tax

You must inform the Benefits Service of any change of address. If you already receive housing benefit or council tax benefit, you must tell the Benefits Service your new address as soon as possible, to make sure you continue to receive all that is due to you.

Remember, housing benefit is payable on your principal address, so you must move into your new property as soon as possible.

Handing in keys

You will need to agree with your Local Housing Office the date to hand in keys to your old property. It is important that you hand your keys in as soon as possible after you leave so that we can arrange to have certain services like your water supply, disconnected.

Home loss and disturbance payment

You can claim a cash advance once you know you are moving. This is to help with payments you might need to make to removal firms, or to have your telephone disconnected and reconnected at your new home. You must save all your receipts so that you can claim back the cost of moving home.

Property demolition - disturbance allowance

If you are moving because we have plans to redevelop your home, you are able to claim certain expenses to help you.

Disturbance allowance is there to help you with your move.

Removals

We will pay the reasonable cost of hiring a recognised removal firm
When you send in your claim please attach the final bill. It normally works out cheaper to use a recognised firm than to hire a van

Property demolition - alternative housing

As and when groups of houses are acquired, arrangements will be made for their demolition. As part of this action we may support residents either by re-housing or in social rented housing.

Those residents wishing to be re-housed into public sector rented accommodation will be given priority on the Housing list.

They can choose to rent Council Housing or a property owned by any of the Registered Landlords in the borough.

Property demolition - properties affected

We must, by law, review the housing conditions in its area from time to time. As a result, properties are identified which have outlived their useful life or have been abandoned. Many of these houses will be unfit for habitation.

We then have to decide on the best course of action to deal with the properties and this may be by including them in a clearance area and subsequently demolishing them.

The first steps in the procedure

Regular reviews of housing conditions will highlight properties that are suffering from high levels of unfitness and vacancy. We must first decide to include properties in principle in clearance areas, based on the estimated levels of unfitness.

In order to seek a Council decision to do this, a report must be produced and the recommendation agreed by our Executive Committee.

We must then carry out a detailed internal and external inspection of all the houses it proposes to include in clearance. Following the survey of the houses, we will be able to decide whether, in its opinion, the houses are unfit for habitation and whether or not the best way of dealing with the unfit houses is by their demolition.

Following the decision to include the properties in proposed clearance areas we must carry out formal consultation of all owners.

Formal consultation process

We will consult all persons who have a legal interest in the unfit properties. These may be owner-occupiers, landlords, financial institutions e.g. banks, building societies.

An advertisement will be placed in the local press indicating that we intend to include the houses in clearance areas.

In addition, we also send a formal notice to all interested parties of the unfit houses, inviting them to submit any comments they have or make representations to us within 28 days of receiving the notice.

There is also an assessment of the future housing requirements of those that would be displaced by clearance so that their housing needs can be accommodated.

Owners of properties that are fit for habitation will not receive a formal notice and their properties will not appear in the press advertisement. They will, however, receive a letter asking them for their comments on the clearance proposal within 28 days as their properties will be included in the compulsory purchase order as added lands.

All tenants will also be consulted on the proposal and their views will also be taken into account.

Private property - voluntary and compulsory acquisition|