South Yorkshire surveyors offered insights by property security specialist VPS
The top seven risks to unattended or unoccupied properties in South Yorkshire are far greater than for occupied premises according to national property security specialist VPS Security Services.
The firm is offering insights into best practice in managing vacant properties, which are vulnerable to vandalism, arson, or simply to the impact of extreme weather. Issues such as storm damage or utility leaks, if unnoticed for a period of time, can severely damage the fabric of a building.
With these risks in mind, the property security experts have listed the top seven dangers that need to be managed for empty properties, in the lead up to their support of the RICS Annual Dinner at Cutlers Hall, Sheffield on 17th October.
- Water ingress, flooding and burst water pipes
Escape of water or flood damage is one of the most common types of domestic property damage claims, with insurers paying out £1.8 million for it EVERY DAY. The damage to a property that is temporarily vacant can be extremely serious if it remains undiscovered and is not attended to for days or even weeks.
- Fire
Arson accounted for 50% of all fires attended in 2017/18 by the UK fire and rescue services. Of the 213,000 fires attended, over 100,000 of them were started deliberately. That’s the equivalent to a mind-boggling 273 fires EVERY DAY – and properties that are vacant are easier targets, bearing the worst of these attacks.
- Fly-tipping
In comparison to arson, fly-tipping statistics are even more alarming. Last year, local authorities reported that there were just short of a million incidents of fly-tipping, equivalent to 2,700 occurrences A DAY. VPS has dedicated ‘clean and clear’ teams who do nothing but remove waste, often from the surrounding grounds or car parks of clients’ properties that are temporarily vacant and therefore become a fly-tippers’ target. An operation they carried out for Tesco earlier this year received attention in the press because VPS deployed drones to highlight an illegal fly-tipping ‘hub’ that had been created next to one of its superstores.
- Vandalism and theft
These crimes can range from unwanted graffiti through to attempted break-ins and thefts, such as metal crime. Before it could be secured, one public house that had closed down, had three people in yellow high-visibility jackets pull up a truck alongside it, use ladders to climb onto its roof, and then steadily strip it of lead tiles, all in broad daylight.
- Squatting
Since 2012, when a law made residential squatting a criminal offence, squatters have tended to target vacant commercial properties. Squatters gained access to an empty building in South Yorkshire recently, forcing open a window and cutting through internal security bars. The squatters detached tiles from a suspended ceiling, damaged the keypad entry system, wrote graffiti on the internal walls and damaged floorings. They also removed concrete blocks from the wall separating two adjoining units. The insurance claim for malicious damage was estimated at £65,000.
- Trespassers and urban explorers
During the summer VPS run a campaign to warn the risks of children climbing onto derelict properties or playing in deserted buildings in their school holidays. Over 3,000 young people are estimated to take risks every week, trespassing on derelict buildings or empty construction sites. Anyone who owns, or controls a site, has a legal duty of care to protect people on the site from foreseeable harm, and this duty even extends to people who are trespassing. People injured on a site, even if they are unauthorised trespassers, can sue the owners and managers for negligence and responsibility for their injuries.
- Neglect
Of course, none of the above may occur, but vacant properties can sometimes fall into disrepair through neglect, with simple maintenance checks and repairs unheeded.
Alongside these seven dangers, lies the risks of mismanaging them: exposure to litigation, non-compliance, no evidence of inspections or care, DIY inspections, invalidating inspections, no recorded trail or simply no inspections at all.
When seeking their properties to be protected, clients’ most common wish list boils down to three requests:
- Efficient and simple key management
- Controlled, safe but fast access for inspectors, tradespeople, authorised personnel
- Reliable, transparent and honest security, inspections and guarding
Interested parties should contact VPS Security Services at https://www.vpsgroup.com/contact for more information and to arrange a consultant and meeting.
