Adapted Colley Gate house could be lost to disabled market, fears seller (From Halesowen News)

Adapted Colley Gate house could be lost to disabled market, fears seller

8:30am Thursday 7th March 2013 in News

DISABLED people looking to move to properties already adapted to meet their needs could be missing out due to a lack of marketing opportunities for sellers, according to a Halesowen family.

Graham Ditchfield was stunned that neither Age Uk nor the Black Country Housing Group would display a card advertising his late parents’ home for sale.

“We were told they are not allowed to advertise disabled/elderly facilities even though it may be beneficial to one of their clients,” he said.

Mr Ditchfield now fears the semi-detached house in Colley Gate will be sold to people who do not need the adaptations and will rip them out.

His elderly parents Desmond and Norma Ditchfield had hundreds of pounds worth of adaptations made to their home, including a stair lift, an adapted walk in shower and bathroom upstairs and a converted downstairs toilet and wet room.

Much of the cost was paid for by Dudley Council and Mr Ditchfield said it “doesn’t make sense” for taxpayers money to be wasted.

He is calling for organisations and charities that support disabled people and the elderly to have some sort of system or register of privately-owned adapted properties which are up for sale that they can access.

Mr Ditchfield said: “Having recently read that it is even harder to apply for and get disabled adaptations installed in homes due to Government cutbacks, we would have thought that any kind of information of this nature may be useful.”

Age UK Dudley chief officer Sally Huband said it was down to estate agents to market adapted homes.

“Estate agents could be missing a trick in terms of people looking for well-designed and accessible homes. This will be an increasing issue as more homes get adapted and certainly more older people look for properties maybe to downsize,” she said.

Mr Ditchfield can be contacted on 07592418232.