Fareham house in Scafell Avenue has stood empty for 60 years - and neighbours are fed up with it
A dilapidated home in Fareham has been empty for 60 years - since it was built
From the street it looks a little unloved and shabby… but this lonely old home tells the story of thousands of forgotten properties that are a blight on Britain’s communities.
Wheelie bins blockade the entrance, a rusty padlock keeps the battered door bolted. Behind its boarded-up windows lie hollow rooms where memories were never made.
For more than six decades, this ramshackle Fareham home has been entirely empty – except for the rats scurrying its interior and the foxes frequenting its overgrown garden.
Neighbours joke it looks like ‘The Addams Family’ home and complain it ‘brings down the area’ while others fear squatters are poised to break in and take it over.
But one thing all locals can unite on is that something must be done about this tumbledown home that is a blot on their neighbourhood where similar properties sell for £350,000.
It was reported to Empty Property Hunters who have been working to help find a new family to call it their home. The London-based firm relies on tip-offs from the general public, its army of ‘hunters’ that report vacant homes through their website or using WhatsApp.
Hunters earn £20 for every genuinely empty home they report, but if Empty Property Hunters go on to buy it, they receive 1% of the purchase price. The lonely semi is one of 265,000 long-term empty residential properties that have been vacant for more than six months, according to Empty Property Hunters.
Built in the 1960s, the three-bed semi-detached house in the town of Fareham, has never been lived in since it was purchased as a pair by the owners of next-door.
Now deceased, the elderly owners of 63 Scafell Avenue bought the neighbouring number 61 with the view that their children would one-day move in and help with their care. Neighbours had been helping with the care and around the home of the elderly widow following her husband’s death up until her death six years ago.
Today, both homes – which have a shared garden - lie empty while the family battles probate. Neighbours still live in hope the houses will eventually welcome new owners.
Neighbour Anne Page, 84, is one of many frustrated locals. She said: “It is dangerous, I am scared stiff at night. I have seen people try and break in for years. It is filled with foxes and rats and the whole situation is just silly. I try and keep an eye on it but it is very stressful.
“I don’t need this at my age and neither does the rest of the community, it’s a big stain on the area. We bought our home in 1965 when it was being built and 63 was always empty.”
Valerie Edwards, 84, who lives three houses up from the dilapidated duo, said: “They could do them up lovely and they’d be a great home for a big family or two small ones.
“It is such a shame. Anne has seen squatters trying to break in so many times, something has to be done and the question is why hasn’t it? This could be one of Britain’s best kept estates bar these shacks.”
Neighbour Nigel Harrison suggested the houses “might need to be knocked down”.
Phillip Jones, 46, is veteran who served 12 years in the Royal Marines and moved to the area six years ago from Gosport. He said: “It’s been a permanent fixture sadly, someone should intervene - this is an expensive area. Maybe if they sold it, the money could go to veterans, we have so many homeless at the moment.”
Married couple Sophie and Val Sargeant moved to the area a year ago. They both agree it’s a ‘shame’ the properties are still vacant.
Sophie Sargeant said: “They’re ugly and it’s sad. I saw someone cutting the bushes back a while back but nobody seems to care.”
Val Sargeant said: ‘It’s like the Addams Family house isn’t it? Nobody has ever touched it or lived in it. It could so easily be converted and given to a nice family.”
Another anonymous neighbour added: “To say the community is a little browned off by the situation is an understatement.”
Simon Taylor, founder of Empty Property Hunters, said: “This isn’t just a property story. It’s about neighbours, communities and thousands of homes sitting empty during a housing crisis. Together we believe we can really make a difference. Houses remain empty for lots of reasons. Some owners simply can’t cope with probate, inheritance rows or the cost of repairs. That’s where we step in and try to unblock the situation.
“The maddest thing? Homes like this are often sitting in areas where families would bite your hand off for the chance to buy one.”