House of Horrors - An Actor's Ordeal

Posted by Jude Buttle on Monday, September 29, 2008

Property horror stories- we've all heard them and hope they never happen to us. Here's what happened when one person's nightmare came true...

To be or not to be

Mark Sutton is an out-of-work actor; you know the kind, always doing odd jobs for odd people to make an honest crust, while pursuing his passion of the art of acting.

For years he's dreamt of being the next Laurence Olivier, or even Ross Kemp for that matter, just someone he could model himself on as he struggles to carve out a career for himself as a working actor.

House hunt

Like many young men (and women) trying to make it in the vast urban metropolis we know and love as London, Sutton wanted to get onto the property ladder and with the assistance of a friend - who he once did one of those low paid ‘Theatre In Education' tours with at a primary school in some obscure part of Wales - he managed to get a deposit together.

After viewing a number of overpriced properties that the estate agent convinced him the vendor would release for much less, and a few hovels in unsuitable areas that weren't worth the bus fare, Sutton decided to check out some auction properties.

Whilst scanning the auction brochures, he found a flat that was in one of his favourite areas of London, the vibrant and slightly grungy borough of Camden. The guide price was surprisingly affordable, so it was all systems go as far as he was concerned.

After consulting his friend they agreed to buy the property together and bid for the flat at the upcoming auction. However, due to unexpected acting auditions for both of them, they missed the pre-auction viewing and neglected to undertake any survey.

Eye before you buy

So they went to the auction without having inspected the property and were the first and only people to bid for it, which is never a good sign. The gavel came down and they had secured their first home, a one bed flat above a chip shop in Kentish Town.

With the 10 per cent deposit paid on the day, the pair arranged for the standard mortgage survey to be done, and in their excitement as homeowners, decide to go to the property with the surveyor to view their new home for the first time.

Cheap as chips

It didn't start well as the look on the surveyors face when he arrived at the entrance of the flat was one of grave concern. The chip shop below the flat looked tired and grubby and the smell of chip fat was overpowering, while the door to the accommodation was rusting and rotten.

On entering the flat, Sutton, his property partner and the surveyor were greeted by numerous rubbish bags in the passage that on closer inspection contained faeces and old clothes.

After getting to the top of the partially collapsing stairs, they found a kitchen that had its walls smeared in grease stains, burn marks and, if the pungent stench was anything to go by, more human waste.

By this time all parties involved were losing their optimism and their worst fears were realised in the lounge room, Sutton explains. "We walked into the living area, led by the surveyor who stopped suddenly in his tracks. I walked to his shoulder and saw what can only be described as a hell-hole of a room.

"On the floor was a carpet that was severely stained and had some kind of fungi growing through it. There was a huge hole in the wall where a fireplace had probably been ripped out and the walls had large cracks, chunks of plaster missing and what reminded me of Bovril smudged on most of it.

"But the piece de résistance was the toilet. As we slowly walked towards the small lavatory area, while covering our noses to avoid the bombardment of the stench, we discovered a partially caved in ceiling, an absent basin, a toilet that had over flown but not with water, and in the decaying bath were a selection of grubs and maggots, all feasting on each other.

"Needless to say we didn't get a mortgage and lost the flat and the deposit, but the one thing that made me smile throughout this costly ordeal was that the surveyor refused to okay the flat for a mortgage based on the fact it was situated over a chip shop."

The moral of this story is, although you can still grab a bargain at auction, it is never wise to buy blind. A lesson learnt the hard way on this occasion.

Search for Auction property and property in England

If you wish to look for auction property or property in England, then why not check out TheMoveChannel.com Auction Property, or TheMoveChannel.com England, which has a large number of listings for both: http://auctions.themovechannel.com/ and http://england.themovechannel.com/

If you have a horror home story that you wish to share, then we'd love to hear from you. Click this link for more information.

Photo by schmilblick

No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon the photo image.

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