All properties are vulnerable to crime and anti-social behaviour, but vacant properties find themselves particularly at risk.
Defined by the Met Police as ‘behaviour by a person which causes, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to persons not of the same household as the person.’ Unprotected vacant properties make the perfect backdrop for an array of damaging and harassing anti-social behaviour.
The good news is that there are a few easy things you can do the keep your vacant property safe, such as installing motion-sensor floodlights and secure fencing. One of the most effective ways to protect your vacant property from anti-social behaviour is with an effective method of on-site security, such as property guardians.
What Are Property Guardians?
Property guardians are key workers, working professionals, and creatives who move into your vacant property full time in order to protect and maintain it. The guardians benefit from lower than market rent, and the landlord receives low cost, 24-hour a day, on-site security. In fact, at Blue Door, we offer our property guardian protection at zero cost to the landlord.
Importantly, guardians are not the same as tenants, meaning that the contracts are far more flexible. This means landlords can tailor their level of security and protection to their unique property. With a quick 30-day hand back process and access to the property at any time, guardianship is a popular solution for landlords looking to save money on maintenance and security.
When it comes to anti-social behaviour, on-site property guardians are an effective way of preventing breach or damage. Alongside caring for and maintaining the property, guardians act as a deterrent making your vacant property far less attractive to opportunistic criminals.
Property Guardians Prevent…
Graffiti and Vandalism
Vacant properties with blank walls are easy targets for vandals. Although certain graffiti is a much-loved form of public art, most of it is not. For example, tagging is an eyesore that can signify high local crime rates to buyers or potential new tenants.
On average, you could find yourself spending between £7-16 to remove just a square meter of graffiti. The total cost of which can quickly add up depending on the size of the damage.
With property guardians in place at your vacant property, your asset is far less likely to become a target of vandalism type anti-social behaviour. This is because the regular coming and going of the guardians will deter most criminals. Plus, if your building was to be targeted, the guardians would quickly report the crime helping to prevent any repeat offences.
Metal Theft
Metal theft has been dubbed the world’s most annoying anti-social crime, and for good reason too. The cost of repairing any damage caused by metal thieves often far out ways the value of the metal stolen – very frustrating.
Railways, statues, roofs, copper wiring and churches have all been targeted by criminals looking for valuable metals. But, as the train lines and public services wise up to this criminal act, many metal thieves are looking elsewhere. This leaves vacant properties, particularly commercial properties, at high risk.
With property guardians in place to secure a vacant property, the cost-risk balance for metal thieves is shifted dramatically. Meaning a vacant property is far less likely to be targeted. With Blue Door, we ensure that at least one guardian is on-site at all times, making it very difficult for any anti-social criminals to gain access or entry to the property.
Fly-Tipping
In 2019-20, the UK government dealt with just under 1 million fly-tipping incidents, a 2% rise compared to the year previous. That’s a huge amount of illegally dumped rubbish.
However, the government will only remove waste that has been dumped on public land. Meaning that if your vacant property is targeted by fly-tippers – the clean-up costs will come down to you.
This anti-social behaviour favours vacant property as most fly-tippers will target areas where they can dump rubbish without being noticed. However, with property guardians in place making regular patrols and inspections, it is nearly impossible for criminals to create a fly-tip dump on your private land.
From 2015-2017, Blue Door Property Guardians successfully managed and protected a North London Business Centre, housing 32 security Guardians. In 2017, the site was sold to a Housing Association for the redevelopment of 400 homes. In line with our 30-day hand back guarantee, Blue Door returned the property but, within two weeks, the site was swamped with fly-tipped waste. It was a shocking incident that had such a negative effect on the landlord and community, that it made the news.
With property guardians in place, fly-tipping is one less worry for the landlord.
Illegal Raves
If an illegal rave is held in your vacant property, it can leave behind an expensive mess to clean up. With some nightmare repair costs totalling up to £20,000.
To avoid the damages associated with illegal raves, vacant property owners are being encouraged to take preventative action to avoid becoming victims of rave crime. Property guardians are one of the most effective ways to avoid this kind of anti-social behaviour. Simply because, if your building isn’t vacant in the first place, then it would be very hard to host a damaging and irresponsible rave in the property.
Squatting
The Gov UK website defines squatting as follows: ‘Squatting is when someone deliberately enters property without permission and lives there, or intends to live there. This is sometimes known as ‘adverse possession’.’
The definition goes on to clarify that squatting in residential properties is illegal but makes no mention of the implications for squatters who take over a commercial property. This is because, according to the government website, it is not a criminal act for anyone to ‘simply (be) on another person’s non-residential property without their permission’. This leaves commercial landlords completely unprotected against squatting and any associated damages.
However, with property guardians providing live-in security your property is fully secured and carefully maintained at all times.
If you’d like to know more about using property guardians to keep your vacant property safe from anti-social behaviour, then you can read more about how Blue Door works here or get in touch here for a chat with one of our expert advisors.
