Legal & Professional

‘Compulsory Sale Orders’ proposed to tackle Scotland’s derelict property problem

By 2018-08-30T23:00:00

Derelict Land in Scotland

Source: Shutterstock/ Iain McGillivray

The Scottish Land Commission says the new power could help bring unused and dilapidated sites back into productive use.

What’s more, according to data from the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, there are more than 37,000 homes that have been empty for six months or more. With 1.38 million owner-occupied homes in the country, that means Scotland has over two and a half empty homes for every 100 occupied ones.

In an attempt to deal with this situation, a new report by the Scottish Land Commission (SLC) is proposing a new power that will give local governments the authority to force owners of unused and dilapidated buildings to sell them in an open auction. This new mechanism has been called a Compulsory Sale Order (CSO).

Property Week spoke to a range of legal and policy experts to get their take on this proposal.

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