NEIGHBOURS who have put up with an empty home becoming a derelict eyesore on their street have spoken of their frustration as the house continues to crumble 14 years after the owners moved out.

Residents on Lerecroft Road, Dringhouses, say they have almost given up hope of ever seeing number 17 occupied again.

The house has lain empty for more than a decade, and neighbours have watched as the garden has become overgrown and parts of the roof have collapsed.

Over the road, home-owners Rachel and Robert Nicholson say they were forced to abandon plans to sell their house. They believe that buyers were put off by the eyesore house opposite.

Rachel said: “We had a part-exchange lined up with a new-build house, but the developers pulled out because our house did not have good enough resale potential. They implied it was because of the house opposite.”

Rachel and Robert even spent three days tidying up the garden at number 17 themselves in a bid to make it less off-putting for potential buyers, but in the end had to arrange to let their house out before they could move away.

Now their tenants Tony and Sharon Atkins say they would love the chance to buy the derelict house and transform it into a family home.

Tony said: “It’s a waste of a property when there are so many people out there who need a home.”

The neighbours have contacted City of York Council and asked for action to be taken to about the house, which they say drags down an otherwise pleasant street.

The council said it was working with the owner and hoped to see the house brought back into use, but it was not yet pursuing enforcement action.

Ruth Abbott, the council’s housing standards and adaptations manager, said: “The council’s empty property strategy allows for the use of enforcement action as an option of last resort in cases where informal approaches fail to achieve the reoccupation of long-term empty properties.”

When contacted by The Press, the owners of number 17 said they understood the neighbours' frustration and would like to see the house sold.

Although they are working with the council to bring the house back into use, a succession of family difficulties and health problems meant they had not been able to make any progress.