Property Guardians - Security for whom?

Date: January 2017 - December 2017

Researchers: Professor Caroline Hunter and Dr Jed Meers

A preliminary study of Property Guardian companies. Property Guardian companies offer to take over the management of properties that would otherwise be empty. In order to provide some form of security protection they install one or several “property guardians” to live in the property to keep it secure. The properties involved may be commercial or residential and the property guardians occupy under “licence” agreements which limit their housing rights. This project is seeking to map the location of properties occupied by property guardians, analyse the claims made by property guardian companies about the rights of tenants and find out the extent of actions taken by local authorities in relation to such properties. A survey of local authority private sector housing environmental health officers will provide data on local authority interventions. For more information please visit the Property Guardian website or watch this video.