When retired policeman Roy Faulkes goes on a walk, he is still on the lookout – but instead of criminals, he is on the hunt for abandoned properties.
The Derbyshire resident has earned nearly £3,000 by identifying and reporting the long-term empty and derelict homes strewn across his neighbourhood.
It started with a home on his old beat: “I knew an old couple had lived there, but two years after they had died, I noticed the house hadn’t been sold and no one had moved in.”
He reported the house to the council, but nothing happened.
Almost 15 years later, he spotted a social media ad for a company called YouSpotProperty that promised rewards to anyone who reported an empty home they would go on to purchase and use.
After being rewarded with a £20 voucher for his initial “spot”, he didn’t think about it again until 18 months later – the house had sold, and as a reward, he was given 1% of the purchase price, equivalent to £2,350.
To date, Roy has received a further 25 vouchers (equivalent to £500) for reporting more houses.
According to the Empty Homes Network, homes worth more than £465bn are empty – roughly equivalent to one in 16 properties. Amid a housing crisis, this means there are more than a quarter of a million residential properties being left to decay.
And companies like YouSpotProperty are trying to bring them back into use.
Roy now keeps an eye out on all his walks for potential properties
How it works
Rewards for sending something to YouSpotProperty start with a £20 voucher for Amazon and M&S – this is paid out to “spots” that meet the company’s criteria. (To date, it says it has handed out 8,189 of these, equivalent to an average of 110 a month).
If the company then goes on to buy the property, bringing it back into use, it pays the “spotter” 1% of the purchase price. It says it pays out an average of seven 1% fees each month.
Ben Radstone founded YouSpotProperty with the idea of using the UK’s biggest investigative force – the general public – to help bring abandoned homes back into use.
“A property which is derelict could be squatted in, it could be dangerous and falling down,” he says. “People don’t want that and they certainly don’t want that next door if they are trying to sell their homes.”
He said one building they bought this week had a pig abandoned inside it by squatters.
Some cases can be trickier than others, and there are a myriad of reasons people leave their homes to decay, but Ben says the death of his father a decade ago gave him the empathy he needs to deal with these situations.
“This is a business, but we always want to give people the right advice,” he says.
“You are dealing with individuals of complex backgrounds, sometimes with mental health issues. And some are just left in a state where things have become so overwhelming they don’t want to deal with the abandoned buildings.”
And while the rewards for the spotters can be significant, there is also the reward of bringing an empty home back into use.
He says people should never assume there won’t be abandoned homes in their area, adding: “We recently bought one in Windsor.”
‘I earned £700 for reporting my neighbour’s abandoned house’
Ayyesha, 29 from Smethwick, had grown fed up with the eyesore that was her neighbour’s abandoned home, which frequently attracted fly-tippers, and was in a poor state of repair. It had been abandoned for the five years she lived next door.
The mother-of-three said she had complained to the council, environmental health and even her local MP, but no action was taken, and Ayesha reported it to YouSpotProperty in 2022.
Then, one day she noticed the garden being cleaned up – she received an email with her reward a few days later. Wary of it being a scam, she called the company directly and researched them online.
This home was an eyesore in Ayyesha’s neighbourhood
“The call was immediately answered by their finance controller who said, ‘You must be Ayyesha’ – I was gobsmacked and overjoyed.
“Initially, I thought I would be getting another voucher, following the £20 Amazon one I received in 2022 for spotting the house – I hadn’t clocked the ‘1%’ reward incentive linked to the firm actually purchasing the property.”
She says the reward money was deposited in her account immediately, and she spent it on a 30th birthday party.
Roy’s advice for spotting abandoned property
Roy says he uses his skills as a policeman when it comes to observing if a property is abandoned. This is what he says to look out for…
- Unkempt gardens: Buddleia is a common plant at abandoned properties. Plants may grow out onto the driveway or even block the front door.
- Visit on bin day: Time your walk on bin day – if the bins haven’t been put out, there is a good chance no one is living there.
- Untidy appearance: Is the paint flaking, or are windows boarded up?