As the council celebrates its success at using new powers to convert a run-down residence into a home for the needy, one property owner says the authority's chronic lack of action on a vermin-filled address in Chiswick continues to devalue neighbouring homes. Sue Fisher owns flats next door to 144 Devonshire Road, Chiswick, which she says has had no one living or working there for 20 years. Since 2001 she has campaigned to spur Hounslow Council into taking control of the neglected derelict property. She has a file of 78 letters she has had with the council over the matter. Mrs Fisher said: "I have been writing to various council members since 2001 regarding break-ins, vermin, vandalism, rubbish and falling masonry." Last week Hounslow became the first London council to use an Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO) to repossess a vandalised home and make it habitable. Speaking of a previous story in the BCI Times about the council taking over run down empty properties she said: "It's irritating to be given the impression that the council is having great success in bringing so many derelict buildings back into use when they have been so lacking in teeth on the Devonshire Road property." The elderly owner of the empty Devonshire Road property, Mrs Price, who did not want to give her first name, inherited the address from her father. She lives in Wembley and has handed over the management of the premises to her son-in-law, Eugene Stickney. Mr Stickney said the the property which formerly had a betting shop on the ground floor became empty in 1996. The flats above were partitioned off and had been empty for decades. He said: "An architect is drawing up plans to be submitted in the next few weeks. Hopefully the plans will be accepted, and I will meet the architect and builder to convert it back into a house, as it was originally." Mrs Fisher, who lives in Chiswick and rents her Devonshire Road property out as flats, said Hounslow Council has given her the same response for six years. She said: "The council says it all has to be done very carefully, which is understandable, but the owner has promised to do these things and he hasn't. "Every time, they say he has planning permission to change it from commercial to residential and that there will be people in by the end of the year. "Besides an EDMO, there is legislation under the Housing Act and the Town and Country Planning Act. Why can't they put one of those into practice?" A Hounslow Council spokesman said discussions with the owner are ongoing and developments have been made. He said applying for an EDMO would be unlikely in this case, but that they were "confident this situation will be resolved in the near future".