BOSSES at East Ayrshire Council have vowed to 'up the ante' over the growing number of 'ownerless' derelict and dangerous buildings across the area.

An empty shop unit in Muirkirk was raised as an example of the issues facing the local authority, its legal obligation to tackle the problem, and the growing financial burden on the council, during a meeting of a key committee.

The Muirkirk building singled out is the former Trotters premises on Main Street.

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If the owner of a building fails to meet the requirements of an enforcement notice, the council can take direct action and subsequently invoice the owner to reimburse them for the costs incurred.

However, chief governance officer David Mitchell said there were more and more instances of properties that are deemed dangerous or derelict also being effectively ownerless.

This means that, as it is legally required to do, the council must undertake works knowing there is no owner to seek costs from.

Mr Mitchell said the Muirkirk building had a complicated history, having been used in the past by the Boys' Brigade.


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He said that, as the group does not take title to a property, a group of local people became trustees.

Unfortunately all of these trustees have passed away, rending the building ownerless.

A similar problem affects a derelict former factory on Jamieson Road in Darvel.

Mr Mitchell said the council was looking to ‘up the ante’, by creating a fund to deal with such propseties

He said that council did not maintain a regular allocation of funds to deal with dangerous and derelict buildings.

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But he said there were efforts to create a 'ring fenced' fund that would allow greater scope to tackle the problem.

He gave Jamieson Road as an example, pointing out that it would be cheaper overall to do the job in one go, rather than go back in ten times to deal with a specific issue.

He added: “Wherever we can intervene, it is incumbent on us to force, encourage, persuade or ultimately threaten to get owners to fulfil their obligations and remove dangerous or defective aspects.”

He said that the public purse should not meet the cost of issues that owners are liable for unless there was no choice.

However, in the case of 'ownerless' properties, the situation is less clear cut, particularly where buildings are owned by limited companies.

Mr Mitchell Said: “It is quite a light touch process. If a company fails to submit accounts for a couple of years, Companies House can dissolve the company.

“There are no checks to see if it owns buildings.”

This results in the council not knowing about the owner’s status until it is too late.

“Jamieson Road is one with no legal owner," he said.

"Anything we do is at the council’s expense.”