The house next door to mum-of-three Ayyesha had been locked-up and abandoned for so long, fly-tippers would regularly dump their rubbish in the garden.
But the 29-year-old couldn’t believe her luck when she received £700 just by reporting the derelict home - and it will now be done up, ready for someone to move into again.
Ayyesha, who lives in Smethwick, West Midlands, and is a manager for a student accommodation, contacted YouSpotProperty.com after becoming fed up of the “neighbourhood eyesore”.
YouSpotProperty.com pays members of the public for reporting abandoned properties in England.
If the property you find meets the eligibility criteria - it is privately owned, not up for sale and no planning permission applied for recently - then you will initially be given a £20 voucher for M&S or Amazon.
But if YouSpotProperty goes on to purchase that home, then you get a 1% share of the property value, up to £10,000.
An estimated 250,000 properties currently stand empty or derelict in England.
Ayyesha said: “We know from neighbours that the owner had once lived in it years back, yet for the past five years that we’ve lived next door, it had been left unoccupied - he’d returned maybe once a year only to sweet the front step.
“No one wanted to help, she said. No action was taken. Fly-tippers eventually started dumping mattresses on the front garden and this went on for nearly five years.
“We knew who the owner was and tried to track him down, but he failed to respond to any of our concerns, much to our frustration.”
Ayyesha first reported the property to YouSpotProperty in 2022 and received a £20 voucher.
To her amazement, the property was later tidied and placed on sale - and Ayyesha was stunned to receive an email from YouSpotProperty saying she was eligible for £700.
Ayyesha had simply taken photos of the house, uploaded it to the company website and YouSpotProperty went on to investigate it.
She said: “When something is too good to be true, it usually is, however, I called YouSpotProperty following the email and was immediately answered by their finance controller who said ‘you must be Ayyesha’ – I was gobsmacked and overjoyed.
“Initially, I thought I would be getting another voucher, following the £20 Amazon one I received in 2022 for spotting the house – I hadn’t clocked the 1% reward incentive linked to the firm actually purchasing the property.”
Ayyesha added: “I’m 30 this year, I didn’t have an 18th or a 21st, so this money will definitely go towards a celebration this year.”
More than 100 empty houses have been “rescued” by YouSpotProperty over the past decade, with the company having given out 8189 £20 vouchers.
To date, the firm has paid out 133 reward fees for homes they eventually went onto buy, before placing them back into use.
Paul Woodley of Hertfordshire become the largest 1% recipient in 2017 with £10,000 paid to him after YouSpotProperty completed the purchase of a £1.15million property.
YouSpotPropert.com co-founder, Nick Kalms, said: “Dealing with empty homes is one of the most complex situations to resolve for local communities, as the reason they fall into this position is often so varied.
“Mostly, it’s near impossible to locate and speak to owners as they can’t easily be traced. We have a specialist team to deal with just this element.
“Often, houses are the subject of long and complicated probate following the death of an individual, and they can sit empty for years.
“Councils have limited powers and resources to allocate to this which is why they end up blighting neighbourhoods – and this is where we step in.”
