Great House Giveaway presenter Simon O'Brien was left speechless after a wannabe property developer rendered an auction-bought house un-mortgageable. Daniel, 36, and 18-year-old Peter were tasked with getting the four-bedroom terraced property in Neath into a liveable state, but when presenter Simon made his first visit to the property since it had been bought, he was shocked at the amount of the house that had been ripped out, leaving it, in his words, un-mortgageable.
The show sees two strangers who have never owned a home buy a property at auction - and have a set budget to transform it into a liveable abode to be resold in just six months. If the pair are successful, they then get to split any profit made - if not the house goes back to auction.
This episode saw strangers Peter and Daniel paired together for the ninth episode of series three, but after seeing the condition of the property, 18-year-old Peter dropped out of the project leaving Daniel to go it alone.
This episode focused on the property in Skewen, an area both Peter and Daniel were familiar with. Daniel, who works in a food processing factory, hopes to foster in the future, so the number of bedrooms and large garden was the biggest draw to the house for him. Apprentice plumber Peter said the property caught his eye due to its location. He said: "I know there is a big park around the corner, and it's a nice place to live, so I think it'll be a nice house to do up." The house was described as "deceptively spacious four bed terrace with an extended kitchen, [that] done up, could be worth £120,000."
Both men did an initial inspection of the property, which brought up a few areas of concern. In one of the rooms there were mushrooms growing from the skirting board, whilst in another there was a hole in the floor, and cracks in the walls. The house appeared dated throughout and was in need of a new kitchen, bathroom and roof.
Daniel was particularly concerned by the cracks in the wall. He said: "This could be the money pot but we will see." Both Peter and Daniel agreed that they would need at least £15,000 to make the property liveable, which is exactly what presenter Simon gave them. Both men seemed optimistic, but when the build began, Peter got a little daunted by the enormity of the project, and decided to pull out.
Before the work began, Simon told Daniel to "go gently" on the property and to not start ripping it to pieces. However, Daniel did not heed this advice, as when Simon arrived, the property was unrecognisable. Simon said: "It's not very often I'm speechless, but this is one of those times. The house has been well and truly gutted - no, demolished. No - destroyed, to the point it's completely un-mortgageable."
As the build progressed, Daniel seemed to uncover more and more problems. One day, he arrived on-site to find he needed a whole new roof. For him, that was the end of the project. He hired a building company to finish the job at cost of £30,000, meaning Daniel spent a total of £45,000 on the house.
By the end of the six months allotted for the renovations, the house wasn't in a liveable state, meaning it had to go back to auction. The property had been bought at £86,000, but despite Daniel spending a whopping £43,000, the property sold at a mere £82,500, less than it had been bought for initially.
Despite his loss, Daniel still insisted he learnt a lot from the project: "It was good. Obviously from a learning and personal experience, but obviously it was a lot more difficulty than we expected in the beginning. Each time a hurdle would come along, I'd try and sort of, have a bad day and push myself back up and say 'Oh come on now, you know you can do it' and then obviously one day, I walked in the house, I opened the upstairs door and there was no roof."
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