Sell a Derelict, Empty or Abandoned Property for Cash

Empty houses do not stay still. Damp gets into the plaster, gutters fail and take the brickwork with them, pipes freeze and split, and the garden climbs the walls. A property that was merely tired when it was last lived in can be a genuine wreck five years later. And the longer it goes on, the smaller the pool of people who can do anything about it.

We buy derelict, abandoned and long-empty property as it stands. You do not need to clear it, secure it, reconnect anything or make it safe. We take it on in whatever state it is in and do the work ourselves once we own it.

The state of the property is our problem to solve, not yours to fix first. Every pound you spend making a derelict house presentable is spent on buyers who will price the works in anyway. Sell it as it is and put the effort where it counts.

What we mean by derelict or empty

There is no strict definition, and we do not need one. The properties we buy under this heading include:

• Long-term empties, standing unoccupied for a year or more, often after a death or a move into care.
• Uninhabitable property, with no working kitchen or bathroom, no heating, or no safe services.
• Structural decay, where a roof, floor or wall has failed and the weather has got in.
• Abandoned or stripped property, broken into, vandalised or with pipework and wiring taken.
• Property with a history, fire damage, flood damage, squatters or planning enforcement.
• Inherited houses nobody has been inside for years, with the contents exactly where the previous owner left them.

If yours is worse than anything on that list, tell us anyway. Condition changes the price; it does not change whether we will buy.

Why a derelict house will not sell the ordinary way

Two things close the open market to a property like this. Mortgage lenders will not lend on a house that is not habitable, because they cannot value it as a home or be sure of reselling it. Insurers are reluctant to cover it, and a buyer cannot complete without buildings insurance in place. Between them, they remove almost every ordinary buyer.

What remains is auction, where a derelict lot can sell but at a price set by the room on the day, or a cash buyer who understands the work. That is where we come in. Because we buy directly, as the principal, nobody has to lend on the property or insure it before we complete.

What empty property costs you every month

Owning an empty house is not free, and the costs are easy to underestimate:

• Council tax, with a premium that councils can apply to long-term empty homes. Depending on how long it has been empty, that can double the bill or more, and it keeps accruing until the property is sold or occupied.
• Insurance, if you can get it at all. Most policies restrict cover after a property has been unoccupied for a month or so, and specialist empty-property cover costs more.
• Deterioration. Every winter an empty house is not heated, the damage compounds. The cost of putting it right rises faster than most people expect.
• Attention. Empty houses attract fly-tipping, break-ins and complaints from neighbours, and some councils will take enforcement action against owners of properties that have become an eyesore or a hazard.

A firm completion date puts a stop to all of it, which is why a fast sale is often worth more than the headline figure suggests.

How we price a derelict property

We start at the end and work backwards. First, what the property would be worth fully renovated and back on the open market. Then the realistic cost of getting it there: clearance, making it safe, structural repair, services, a full refurbishment. Then the time that work will take, and an allowance for what nobody can see until the floors come up.

What remains is the figure we can pay. We set that reasoning out in your written offer, part by part, so you can see how the number was reached rather than being handed a total. You can read how we calculate a cash offer for the method.

Two things we will say plainly. A property in this state is worth substantially less than the same property in good order, because the work to close that gap is real and expensive. And what you will not get from us is a figure that drops before exchange: the offer in writing is the offer that completes.

In the great majority of cases, RPJ is the buyer. Just occasionally a property suits another buyer, or an estate agent, better than it suits us, and they can genuinely do better for you than we can. When that happens we say so, and with your permission we introduce you: one introduction, to one named firm, never a list. Where they go on to buy, we sometimes receive an introduction fee from them. You never pay us anything, and nothing about you is shared without your say-so.

What to send us

• The postcode and address.
• How long it has been empty, roughly, and why.
• What you know about its condition. Photos help enormously, even phone snaps through a window.
• Whether services are connected, and whether anyone has been living in it without permission.
• Any paperwork: council correspondence, an old survey, insurance letters, or the grant of probate if the property was inherited.

If you do not have much of this, send what you have. We can view the property ourselves with your permission.

Related pages

• Sell a probate property, since many derelict houses are inherited.
• Sell an unmortgageable property, for the wider picture on what lenders will not touch.
• Sell a fire-damaged property, if fire is part of the history.
• Sell a house with subsidence, if the movement is structural.

Start an offer

If you own a property that has stood empty for too long, tell us about it. We will come back within 24 hours with a written, no-obligation offer, the reasoning behind it, and an honest view on whether selling as it stands is the right move for you.