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It’s a strange reality that the bigger the city, the more developed the infrastructure and the larger the community – the more lonely the people who live there tend to be.

In May 2018 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, a department of HM Government, released a ‘fact sheet’ aiming to give potential guardians ‘advice’. However, it appears to be strongly biased against guardianship and fails to factor in this alternative method of housing as a healthy option for skilled professionals.

Having a valuable property unoccupied for weeks, or even months is a key concern for many landlords. You might have experienced it yourself, the dread of entering your empty property to find it broken into vandalised or even worse, receiving a call that your investment has gone up in smoke.

The UK housing crisis has caused suffering, poverty and anger in our major cities for years. Various economic factors such as inflated land values, ‘prospective investors’, sometimes based overseas, leaving residential properties deliberately empty so that they can wait for land values to rise and then sell on, making a profit without lifting a finger.

A lot of people think landlords have it pretty easy – we know different. From rates and council tax and how that affects your rent and tenancy needs, to getting the right people in the right properties, and of course dealing with everything that seems to go wrong.

There are an awful lot of things to consider when facing the prospect of your property becoming empty. A hike in council tax, increased risk of vandalism, fire and squatting – and of course the potentially enormous financial costs of putting things right and making repairs should the worst happen.

The prospect of leaving your property vacant, in an urban area, in the middle of a housing crisis and an increase in crime-rates, is a daunting one to say the very least.

It is a little-known fact that most standard building insurance policies only continue to cover your building when it is empty for a certain amount of time – for example, 30 – 60 days. This is the case for commercial properties as well as residential properties.

If, for any reason, your commercial property becomes vacant you may need to enlist the services of vacant property specialists, but let’s take a journey to Whitehall in this article and see what the law says.

How can housebuilders protect their sites and save on business rates? Residential guardians might be the answer, says Ginette Vedrickas.

Undertaking the role of a property guardian means you have to be trustworthy, reliable and meeting of certain criteria.

Fully employed, trustworthy, and looking for accommodation? If you find yourself wanting to live in a certain area at a lower cost, you might consider becoming a property guardian.