EDMO - Councils Taking Over Empty Houses: Your Rights & Your Obligations

You own the house. You pay the mortgage. If you leave it empty long enough, your local council can potentially take control of its management and ultimately put tenants in it.

EDMO - An illustration of a local council taking management control of a long-term empty home.

This is an Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO). You remain the legal owner, but while an EDMO is operating, the council can acquire substantial management powers over the property.

On 27 September 2026, the Government announced plans to reduce the period a property must generally have been empty before EDMO action from two years to six months, alongside other changes intended to make the powers easier for councils to use.

That does not mean every property empty for six months will be taken over. There is a legal process, exemptions and tribunal oversight.

1. EDMO Your rights

EDMOs were created by the Housing Act 2004 and came into force in England in 2006.

Step 1: an interim EDMO allows a council to take steps to get a qualifying empty property occupied, initially with important restrictions on what it can do without the owner's agreement.

Step 2: if that does not resolve the situation, the council can make a final EDMO if the statutory conditions are met. Under a final EDMO, the council must take appropriate steps to secure occupation and properly manage the property.

Exemptions to the rule

There are prescribed exceptions, including circumstances where:

• The property is genuinely being marketed for sale.

• The property is genuinely being marketed to let.

• It is genuinely used as a second or holiday home.

• The owner is temporarily living elsewhere.

• The owner is receiving care elsewhere.

• The owner is living elsewhere to provide care to somebody.

• The owner is serving away from home in the armed forces.

• The property is empty following the death of its owner, subject to the relevant conditions.

• Certain employment or agricultural circumstances apply.

• Certain legal proceedings prevent the property being occupied.

Academic research suggests EDMOs have historically been used relatively sparingly. Henderson's peer-reviewed study of EDMO cases found relatively limited use of the powers and a much wider variety of owner circumstances than the simple image of an owner deliberately abandoning a property might suggest.

Who pays for repairs?

Once an EDMO is operating, the council has responsibilities for the property's proper management.

During an interim EDMO, the Housing Act specifically requires the council to ensure reasonable provision is made for insurance against fire and other damage.

Under a final EDMO, the council must produce a management scheme setting out any works it intends to carry out and estimating the capital and other expenditure involved.

But that does not necessarily mean the council pays for everything out of its own pocket. The legislation allows relevant expenditure — including reasonable management costs, works and insurance — to be taken into account in the financial arrangements. In other words, costs incurred managing and repairing your property can reduce the money ultimately available to you from the rent.

Who gets the rent?

While a final EDMO is operating, the owner is not entitled to collect the rent directly from the occupier; he council collects it. That does not necessarily mean the council keeps all of it. The final EDMO must contain a financial management scheme covering expected rent, expenditure, compensation and the financial arrangements with the owner. The council must also keep accounts relating to the property.

So the basic calculation can look more like:

Rent Collected − Permitted Management/Repair Costs = Money Potentially Available Under the Financial Arrangements with the Owner.

There is also no automatic tax discount for agreeing to cooperate with the council. Tax and Council Tax operate under their own rules.

2. EDMO in other countries

🇬🇧 England

England introduced EDMOs through the Housing Act 2004, with the relevant powers coming into operation in 2006.

The system allows councils to take management control of qualifying empty homes without transferring legal ownership to the council.

🇫🇷 France

France has a much longer history of government intervention in vacant housing. Its legal system contains powers allowing vacant residential property to be requisitioned under specified circumstances.

A further system known as réquisition avec attributaire was introduced in 1998, allowing qualifying vacant properties to be brought into housing use through an intermediary organisation.

The French system is not identical to an English EDMO, but the underlying idea of intervening in privately owned vacant housing predates England's system.

🇪🇸 Spain

Spain also has measures aimed at long-term vacant housing, although housing law and enforcement vary between its autonomous communities.

Catalonia's Law 18/2007 on the Right to Housing created a legal framework dealing with permanently unoccupied housing and the social function of residential property.

Again, it is not the same legal mechanism as an English EDMO.

3. EDMO Your obligations

If the council contacts you about your empty property, do not ignore it.

The EDMO process requires the council to consider the owner's circumstances and intentions before an interim order is authorised.

• If you are selling, keep evidence that the property is genuinely on the market: your agency agreement, listing, viewing records, offers, correspondence and price changes.

• If you are trying to rent it yourself, keep your advertisements, letting-agent correspondence and enquiries.

• If you intend to return to the property, explain that and provide evidence.

• If one of the exemptions above applies, tell the council immediately and document it.

There is also tribunal oversight. A council cannot simply decide one morning that it is taking over your empty house; an interim EDMO requires tribunal authorisation.

Do you still pay Council Tax?

This needs an important distinction.

While the property is empty, the owner will generally be responsible for Council Tax unless an exemption or discount applies. Councils can also charge an empty-home premium on properties that have remained empty for at least one year.

However, “you still own it, therefore you still pay Council Tax” is not necessarily true once tenants are actually living there. Once the council has brought the property back into occupation, Council Tax liability is determined by the normal Council Tax rules. In many ordinary tenancy situations, the resident tenant becomes liable for the Council Tax rather than the non-resident owner. There are exceptions — including some types of property where the owner remains liable — so ownership alone does not decide who pays.

That means an EDMO does not automatically leave you paying Council Tax while the council's tenant lives in your house.

You also do not automatically receive a special Council Tax or other tax reduction simply because you cooperate with the council. The financial benefit of cooperation is more likely to be retaining greater involvement in how the property is brought back into use and potentially avoiding escalation to a final EDMO.

You remain the owner.

Then again, ownership, management control, rental income and tax liability are four different things. If the Government's newly announced reforms take effect as proposed, owners of long-term empty properties could face this process after six months rather than two years.

Information checked 30 September 2026. This article provides general information, not legal or tax advice. The six-month EDMO reform was announced by the Government on 27 September 2026 and should be distinguished from provisions already in force.