Burnley landlords facing forced sales

News Category: Legal

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Landlords in Burnley could be forced to sell properties to the local council, in a bid to tackle the town's vacant properties problem and recoup council tax debts.

The move forms part of Empty Homes Strategy being employed to free up the 2,270 unoccupied homes in Burnley.

Under the plans, landlords could be served with 'empty dwelling management orders' to allow the council to take control of vacant properties for up to seven years, the Citizen reports.

The administration would also push through enforced sales to allow the town to recover council tax that some landlords have not paid.

Gordon Birtwistle, council leader, said: "We have got thousands of empty properties in Burnley, most of them owned by landlords, and we want them to either put decent tenants in them or get them up to scratch and sell them to first-time buyers.

"Despite that, the number of empty properties is coming down now."

He added: "The definition being applied by the council for an empty house is one which has been unoccupied for six months or more and "does not have a reasonable prospect of being brought back into use by the owner without local authority intervention."

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