The Problem With Dilapidated Buildings
Unsurprisingly the island’s capital has the most identified dilapidated properties.
Five local authorities have told the DoI they don’t know how many dilapidated properties there are in their area, while three didn’t respond to the request at all.
Tim Crookall was asked by Onchan MHK Rob Callister for a detailed breakdown of dilapidated properties on the island, broken down by local authority, including who owns them and what powers have been used to try to force owners to repair them. You can see his full question below.
In his response, Mr Crookall said that the DoI reached out to all local authorities for answers but ‘not all of the Local Authorities were able to provide figures for the number of dilapidated properties in each local authority area, as in most cases this information is held in the Treasury Rates office’.
He added: ‘The Department has spoken to the Treasury Rates office and has been provided with a list of all the zero-rated properties on the Island. However, this is not a reliable record of “dilapidated” properties on the Island, as these would only be recorded as such by the Treasury Rates Department if the owner of the property notifies them in writing and requests the building to be zero-rated.’
Didn’t Respond or Don’t Know
While the DoI, which is responsible for local authorities, sought this information, Mr Crookall said that German, Jurby and Michael commissioners didn’t respond to the request.
He added that Andreas, Ballaugh, Castletown, Port St Mary and Santon did respond, but only to say that they didn’t hold any records of dilapidated properties in their area.
Capital Problems
Of those who did reply, it is unsurprisingly Douglas which recorded the most dilapidated properties with 61 but it doesn’t know what percentage of these are unoccupied or who owns them. This is followed by Ramsey with 25 recorded dilapidated properties, of which 48% are said to be unoccupied. Of these 56% are privately owned, 40% are owned by companies and 4% are said to be owned by dead people.
Outliers
Perhaps surprisingly Marown recorded the next highest number of properties known to be dilapidated with 14, though the Commissioners were unable to say how many are occupied or owned. However, Patrick Commissioners were able to say that of the 11 dilapidated properties it knows 36% are under renovation, but it didn’t say who owns them. Garff said it knew of 10 dilapidated properties, none of which were unoccupied and all was privately owned.
Hard to say
Mr Crookall added: ‘The definition of “dilapidated” in relation to properties on the Island is set out in Section 24 of the Building Control Act 1991. In many cases it is difficult to assess dilapidated properties with assessments often being carried out by the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture’s Environmental Health Officers on behalf of the Local Authority.
‘The Building Control Act 1991 was amended by the Local Government and Building Control (Amendment) Act 2016 to give better powers for Local Authorities to serve a fixed penalty notice on those persons who fail to comply with a notice under Section 24 of the Act.
‘It is understood that some Local Authorities have used their powers to force repairs and improvements to buildings but this is very sporadic across the Island. The Department is not aware of any assessment having been made of the effectiveness in using these powers.’
You can see a full breakdown of the other local authorities below:
