A Failure Story of Leaving My Family Home Vacant | Part 1: "Why do people leave it alone even when they think they 'have to do something about it'?"

A bitter personal story of "leaving my family home vacant"

"My family home has become vacant, but I don't know where to start."
The number of people in this situation is increasing nationwide, and the issue of vacant houses is frequently covered in the news as a social problem.

In fact, I myself have the experience of leaving the family home where I was born and raised vacant for six years.
Why did I leave my family home vacant?And what happened during that time? Now that I have become an administrative scrivener, I would like to share this as a story of failure.

◆A sudden farewell to my father at 21. The family home I was attached to becomes vacant...

When I was 21, my father passed away suddenly.
My mother, my siblings, and I, who were university students at the time, decided to move to Tokyo where my mother's relatives lived. Our base of life shifted to Tokyo, and the family home where we had lived until then (a wooden house nearly 40 years old) became vacant.

Despite being in a prime location right in front of a major private railway station on a southeast corner lot, the house wasleft vacant with no one living in it for a full six years, from 2013 until it was sold in 2019.

◆"Memories" cloud realistic judgment

Of course, it wasn't that I wanted to leave it vacant from the start.
I thought, "For now, we'll live in Tokyo until life settles down, and we'll go back and forth to the family home little by little to clean up and think about it slowly."
Since it was a house where we had lived for over 20 years until my father passed away, I couldn't make the decision to "sell" or "let go" of it right away.

It was a space where memories would overflow the moment you opened the front door. My father's room was also left almost exactly as it was.
Disposing of such a space felt like cutting off memories of my father, and it felt very painful.

◆I ended up thinking, "Maybe there's a better way to use it"

Also, the fact that the land where the family home stood was a corner lot near the station resulted in delaying my judgment. I imagined various possibilities: "Could this house be rented out?" "Could we rebuild and use it?" "Could we just use the land as a parking lot?"

But,I just dreamed about it and never consulted anyone, and time just kept passing by.
Even when I looked into it myself, there was no information on similar land, and at the time, I had zero knowledge about real estate. I kept putting it off while in a state of "I want to use it, but I don't know if it will work out," and one year, then two years passed.

◆I didn't know who to consult

And another big factor was that I didn't know who to consult.

Now that I am an administrative scrivener working in the real estate industry, I have some knowledge, but at the time, as a university student and with my mother as a full-time housewife, we were skeptical, thinking, "If we consult a real estate agent, won't we just be talked into something?"
Also, because the family home was originally my father's ancestral home, my mother was convinced that "we shouldn't sell it without the permission of my father's relatives."

Since my mother did not get along well with my father's relatives, we were unable to have a heart-to-heart consultation.

As a result, the house was left vacant for six years without being discussed with anyone.

◆There are reasons why you can't take action even when you think you "have to do something" about a vacant house

I realize that the reasons for leaving a vacant house alone are often not legal or financial issues, but ratheremotions, expectations, and relationships—parts that cannot be easily resolved.

In my case, too, complex feelings such as "because there are memories," "maybe it could be used more," and "because there are issues with relatives" were intertwined, and in the end, I left the family home vacant for six years. Also, at the time, my knowledge of real estate was poor, so I didn't know where to start.

But now, looking back on that time, I think,
"I wish I had consulted someone sooner."

◆ Seek advice early if you want to do something about a vacant house

Next time, I will introduce the risks and disadvantagesof leaving a house vacant, while also sharing my own personal experiences.

If you are currently thinking, "My parents' home is sitting vacant, but I don't know what to do..." or "Discussions with my siblings and relatives aren't moving forward," I would be happy to help you start by

organizing your thoughts.
together.

As an administrative scrivener based primarily in Taito Ward, Tokyo, who supports people with concerns about vacant houses and inheritance, I would be delighted to be a trusted advisor for you.