report (and find) your local empty homes

Just so people know in advance, this website expects you to give a name and email address before submitting reports of empty properties. It suggests these details will get passed on to the relevant local authority. Bit off-putting, if you ask me.

....your name/e-mail address if wanted - i think they're asking for it so that the local council can respond back to you with what they have done (maybe)

or just use the site for some details of empties...there's not a lot on there at the moment, and any reported are passed directly to the local authority with the expectation that they may do something about it.

so in reality they may notice quickly that there's squatters in the property....but in reality who know's if the council's are going to be that on it. and if they don't own the property and struggle to locate the owner, it'll at least buy people a bit of time through the cold winter.

for me, a good use would be the naming and shaming of social landlords (including council's themselves) who are keeping properties empty rather than housing people. there's been ongoing campaigning around one housing association in particular in bristol, and if a site like this could provide more evidence of their shoddy practices - well, that would be really useful

... I think the personal details thing is fine. You might think twice if you were a squatter, of course, but otherwise I can't see anything untoward in it. They take the details mainly because this is what council bureaucracies have always done. We in Britain rather like that sort of thing - I guess it makes the people at the details-taking organisation feel important!

They may wish to give you a call if the address specification is unclear, and as the prev poster says, they may call you after assessing your report to let you know what they're going to do about it.