When retired police officer Roy Faulkes walks, he’s always on the lookout – but instead of criminals, he’s looking for abandoned properties.

The Derbyshire resident made almost £3,000 by identifying and reporting empty and long-abandoned homes scattered across his neighborhood.

It all started with a house in his old neighborhood: “I knew an old couple lived there, but two years after their death, I noticed that the house hadn’t been sold and no one had moved in .”

He reported the house to the council, but nothing happened.

Nearly 15 years later, he spotted a social media ad for a company called YouSpotProperty that promised rewards to anyone who reported an empty house that they would buy and use.

After being rewarded with a £20 voucher for his first ‘place’, he didn’t think twice until 18 months later: the house was sold and, as a reward, he received 1% of the purchase price, l The equivalent of £2,350.

To date, Roy has received a further 25 vouchers (equivalent to £500) for reporting more homes.

According to Empty Homes Network, homes worth more than £465 billion are empty, roughly the equivalent of one in 16 properties. Amid a housing crisis, this means more than a quarter of a million residential properties are left abandoned.

And companies like YouSpotProperty are trying to get them back up and running.

How it works

Rewards for sending something to YouSpotProperty start with a £20 voucher for Amazon and M&S – this goes to ‘spots’ that meet the company’s criteria. (To date, he claims to have distributed 8,189, an average of 110 per month).

If the company then buys the property and puts it back into service, it pays the “spotter” 1% of the purchase price. He says he pays an average of seven 1% fees each month.

Ben Radstone founded YouSpotProperty with the idea of ​​using the UK’s greatest investigative force – the general public – to help bring abandoned homes back into use.

“An abandoned property could be squatted, it could be dangerous and collapse,” he says. “People don’t want that and they certainly don’t want that on the side if they’re trying to sell their house.”

In a building they bought this week, a pig had been abandoned by squatters.

Some cases can be trickier than others, and there are a myriad of reasons why people leave their homes to deteriorate, but his father’s death ten years ago gave Ben the empathy he needed. needed to deal with these situations.

“It’s a business, but we always want to give people the right advice,” he says.

“You’re dealing with individuals with complex backgrounds, sometimes with mental health issues. And some find themselves in a state where things have become so overwhelming that they don’t want to deal with abandoned buildings.”

And while the rewards for observers can be great, there is also the reward of putting an empty house back into service.

He says to never assume there won’t be abandoned houses in your area: “We recently bought one in Windsor. »

‘I made £700 reporting my neighbour’s abandoned house’

Ayyesha, 29, from Smethwick, was fed up with her neighbor’s abandoned house, which was a frequent magnet for flying skips and in a state of disrepair. It had been abandoned during the five years she lived next door.

The mother-of-three said she complained to the council, Environmental Health and even her local MP but no action was taken, and Ayesha reported this to YouSpotProperty in 2022 .

Then one day she noticed the garden was being cleaned up and she received an email a few days later with her reward. Fearing it might be a scam, she called the company directly and did some research online.

“The call was immediately answered by their financial controller who said, ‘You must be Ayyesha’ – I was stunned and delighted.

“I initially thought I would receive another voucher, following the £20 Amazon voucher I received in 2022 for spotting the house – I hadn’t timed the 1% reward linked to the actual purchase of ownership by the company.”

She says the reward money was immediately deposited into her account and she spent it on a 30th birthday party.

Roy’s tips for spotting an abandoned property

Roy uses his skills as a police officer when it comes to observing whether a property is abandoned. That’s what he says to be careful…

• Poorly maintained gardens: Buddleia is a common plant in abandoned properties. Plants can grow on the driveway or even block the front door.
• Visit on baccalaureate day: Plan your walk on trash day – if the trash cans haven’t been put out, chances are no one lives there.
• Messy appearance: Is the paint peeling or the windows closed?