Couple buy crumbling 120-year-old mansion for £30k by MISTAKE after auction mix-up

A YOUNG couple tried to buy a two-bedroom flat for £30k – but ended up with a derelict mansion by accident after a mix-up with the auction number.

Cal Hunter and Claire Segeren found themselves with the 120-year old property after trying to pick up a Glasgow apartment for a discount.

Cal didn’t realise the property he ended up with was being sold in three lots instead of one – so put his bid in too early by mistake.

But the pair called the mix-up a “beautiful mistake” after falling in love with the crumbling Jameswood Villa in Dunoon, Scotland.

They want to turn it into three apartments, and flog two to pay off their mortgage.

Cal, 26, told the Daily Record: “We love the house and its stunning location in a village on the edge of a Scottish loch. It’s all been a beautiful mistake.

“If we can tackle this, we can tackle anything – it’s going to take us much longer than a year but just think of the life skills we are going to learn along the way.”

It’s like a huge catch-22 jigsaw puzzle

Claire Segeren

Claire – who was in her native Canada at the time of the auction – revealed the pair are now living on-site in a caravan as they battle to turn the manor around.

She said: “Finding a new problem seems to be a daily occurrence here at Jameswood. It has taken us until now to find the electricity cable that will allow us to connect to the mains.

“Our van was getting stuck in the mud so we put down a driveway which we had to dig up a week later to find the elusive water supply.

“The house needs a new roof but a civil engineer has told us the walls probably won’t be strong enough to hold it up so we will have to fix them first and risk the rain coming through the roof ruining them. It’s like a huge catch-22 jigsaw puzzle.

“You would think all this would put us off but it hasn’t.

“We may have bought the wrong house but, to us, it was a happy accident – one which we are embracing rather than despairing over.”

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