A council home in South Bristol has been sitting empty for at least year - but some residents believe it may be longer. Bristol City Council has been criticised for not putting the property back into use sooner.
All the residents BristolLive spoke to agreed that the property on Hillside Street has had work done in that time, but some felt the works had taken too long. BristolLive understands the property in Totterdown has two bedrooms and residents described it as having the potential to be a family home.
One neighbour said the tenant moved out during the pandemic, but wasn't able to give an exact date, adding she believes it was last summer. Since then, work has been done to the South Bristol house, she said, and there had been scaffolding up at one point.
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"We were commenting on how long it has been empty for, with such a long queue for [social] housing and people living on temporary accommodation, for them to take such a long time seems very inefficient," she said. "I do not understand why it has taken them so long, it feels like a massive waste not to bring it back faster.
"It should be prioritised. Perhaps some families would appreciate moving in, even though the works are still ongoing."
One neighbour said she believed the tenant moved out about two years ago and that the council has been doing works to the property since, but that they have been delayed because of coronavirus.
"They had to do the roof and they had damp problems as well," she said. "There was a lot of work to do, I think it is a fair amount of time. The council has brought people round to look at the property, but they are still doing work to it now. They were there just last week."
A third neighbour said she believes the property had been empty for nearly two-and-a-half years. She described the amount of time they have taken to get the house sorted as 'ridiculous' and said it should not have taken them that long, claiming that it took over 10 months to get a new roof put on the house.
"The council have allowed through their own sheer incompetence a large two bed family house stay completely empty for two years and four months at present," she claimed. "It can easily sleep a family of four. It is a family house and it should be back in use, not left empty. There is no justification for it when you have people sleeping rough."
The resident claimed no work was done to the house for several months and that someone could have easily gone in there to squat.
"You do not expect the council to leave a property empty for such a long time, it is wrong in all accounts," she added. "It should be back in the system for someone to live in - you can not leave a property empty for that long. It is a big house and has lots of potential. To be left all that time is a complete joke."
Bristol City Council was approached for comment. In a previous story about an empty council property, it said that it had experienced some delays in renovating properties and returning them to use due to the pandemic.
At the time, it said: "During this time, we were concentrating on supporting in excess of 100 plus household in homeless temporary accommodation plus bringing 500 homes back into use to provide more homes for the people of Bristol."
The council said that, as of December 2021, it took them 77 days on average to re-let empty council homes requiring extensive major works. It said that last year the Council re-let 1,081 homes, despite the challenges around people moving house during the pandemic.
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