Empty Homes
Dear South Norfolk District Council,
Please can you provide me with the following information under the Freedom Of Information Act 2000:-
(a) addresses and rateable values of empty homes that are within South Norfolk District Council area; and
(b) the names of the owners of those properties referred to in (a)
Yours faithfully
Stuart Roffey
Dear Stuart,
Thank you for your request of information which is being considered. You may be aware that we have to respond to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within 20 working days and as soon as is reasonably practicable, therefore you will receive a response by 14 March 2018 or earlier.
For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions, which may prevent release of the information you have requested. There will be an assessment and if any of the exemption categories apply then some or all of the information may not be released. You will be informed if this is the case, including your rights of appeal.
If any of the information you have requested is not contained in a recorded format, South Norfolk Council is not obliged to create information for the purpose of responding to your request
There may be a fee payable for ‘reasonable disbursement’ costs such as postage and photocopying. This will be considered and you will be informed if a fee is payable. In this event the fee must be paid before the information is processed and released. The 20 working day time limit for responses is suspended until receipt of the payment.
If you have any queries or concerns then please let me know. If you do contact us again concerning this request, please quote FOI 18-72.
Regards
Hannah Mawson
Principal Customer Services Advisor
t 0808 168 2000 www.south-norfolk.gov.uk
South Norfolk Council - Investors In People | Platinum
Dear Stuart
Under section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am
advising you that the Council does hold the requested information.
This subject has been the topic of a ruling by the Information Tribunal
involving Bexley Council. Essentially the Tribunal ruled on a number of
issues, including that “disclosure of the list [of empty residential
properties] would be likely to have a significant negative impact on the
prevention of crime.” Also the Tribunal clearly stated that the public
interest test was in favour of non-disclosure for individuals owning
property. The last key element of the Tribunal’s conclusions was “that
the addresses are personal data” and thus exempt under section
40(3)(a)(i). In addition, the names are certainly personal information and
I consider the names to also be exempt under Section 40 of the FOI Act.
The substituted decision was, in effect, that the Council concerned was
correct to withhold the addresses of empty properties, but that any data
relating to companies owning such properties should be disclosed.
Unfortunately, Council Tax records do not specifically identify properties
owned by individuals or non-individuals. We are therefore unable to
distinguish from our records those empty/void properties that are not
owned by individuals and therefore I am unable to provide you with the
information requested.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 this email acts as
a Refusal Notice. In terms of the exemption, you have a right of appeal
against our decision. In the first instance this appeal must be internal
and we enclose a copy of our guidance regarding how to request an internal
review. We hope that you will not feel it necessary to invoke an appeal,
but if you do we will take every care to re-assess your request and let
you have our findings.
Regards
Emma Goddard
Senior Governance Officer & Deputy Monitoring Officer
t 01508 533943 e [email address] [1]www.south-norfolk.gov.uk
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