LONDON -- At an abandoned home with yellowing newspapers on its front stoop, Paul Palmer peeks through a mail slot to find letters and leaves carpeting the entryway. The house next door has a dead plant chained to its porch, which is covered in faded utility bills.

Paul Palmer

Mr. Palmer investigates abandoned homes for a living. But his turf isn't a poverty-stricken corner of this financial capital. It's the Mayfair district, home to wealthy financiers, celebrities, the U.S. Embassy -- and a few squatters.

In the city of Westminster, where Mayfair is located, homes can cost up to &pound;50 million ($81 million). Yet Westminster is fifth among London's 33 boroughs in the number of unoccupied properties. In 2008, 1,737 homes had been vacant six months or more, the third highest number among all London boroughs, according to the Empty Homes Agency, a nonprofit group that seeks to put empty homes back into use.

Unlike people facing foreclosures in other neighborhoods around the world, Mayfair's homeowners aren't down on their luck. Rather, the properties serve as investments for owners who pay the bills to keep them empty -- something the neighbors and city object to when the homes fall into disrepair. Many owners decline to rent the homes due to local council tax rules, which tax properties at a lower rate if they are empty and unfurnished. That loophole frustrates Mr. Palmer. "We shouldn't be rewarding these people," he says.


On a recent mission in Mayfair, Mr. Palmer -- an impeccably dressed man with a jovial demeanor -- walked barely half a mile to canvass 22 empty homes. Many have been collecting dust and cobwebs for six years or more. Mr. Palmer tries to determine whether a house is inhabited by glimpsing through the mail slot.

"Ah! Smell that wood! It's lovely, isn't it?" he said after getting a whiff of a house with mahogany-lined walls.

The high concentration of rundown, empty homes is striking for a posh neighborhood like Mayfair, with its ornately gated manses. The hub of aristocratic society before World War II, Mayfair's modern-day image is demonstrated by its prominent place on the British Monopoly board.

In real life, the empty-home phenomenon touches some of the U.K.'s more famous residents. A few years ago, Mr. Palmer met comedian Tracey Ullman and her husband, Allan McKeown. They wanted to know why the house next door to theirs was derelict, recalls Mr. McKeown.

To Mr. Palmer's delight, refurbishment began on the home in question after he spent years wrestling with the owners.

On a recent visit, Mr. Palmer phoned a colleague to share the sweet sound of renovation: "Do you hear that noise? They're on site, which is fantastic!"

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair's home is adjacent to a crumbling property that's been vacant for more than a decade. The owner keeps up on its payments, according to Mr. Palmer. But one look inside indicates they likely haven't visited in years.

In the tony Mayfair section of London, an empty house awaits renovation. Jennifer M. Martinez/The Wall Street Journal

Ron Mowlam, who lives across the street, pines to buy the home and refurbish it, but he can't locate the owners. So far, they've evaded Mr. Palmer as well. "It's just sitting there rotting, which is bizarre," says Mr. Mowlam.


If a property is still empty after six months, with no effort on the owner's part to occupy, rent or renovate it, Mr. Palmer begins a "compulsory purchase" -- a process that forces an owner to relinquish possession. After assessing the value of the property, officials typically sell the house. If the original owner hasn't come forward, funds are paid to a local court where they remain for up to seven years. Most owners eventually turn up to claim the cash.


Squatters have inhabited some homes, like the ones above. Jennifer M. Martinez/The Wall Street Journal

The problems surrounding the abandonment of high-end real estate were exposed last winter when a group of young squatters occupied two &pound;20 million homes on Park Lane overlooking Hyde Park. Before the squatters settled in, the homes had been empty for seven years. During that time, Mr. Palmer had tried three times to contact their British Virgin Islands-based property owners: Red Line Ltd. and Perfectil Ltd.

Following two years of silence, the property owners surfaced once multiple British newspaper accounts outed the squatters. "We're the REAL Slumdog Millionaires," read a headline in the Sun.

Red Line and Perfectil couldn't be reached for comment. The houses remain empty. Mr. Palmer says he intends to seek a compulsory purchase order.

Mr. Palmer often takes a more sympathetic view to squatters than he does toward the owners of an abandoned property. After finding out about another group of squatters in Mayfair, he stopped by to introduce himself.

"I sat on the floor and had tea with them," he says. "It enabled me to get into properties I've been chasing for a long, long time." He has saved their mobile phone numbers. "At the end of the day, they have a similar goal of putting empty properties back into use," he says. "We just go about it in two very different ways."

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