Pair gifted house for free horrified as renovation disaster costs them £75,000 with no hope of finding a buyer
TWO strangers brought together on a Welsh property show were left horrified after a £75,000 house renovation turned into a complete disaster.
The moment came on the Welsh language show Tŷ Am Ddim, which translates to House For Free.
In the programme, the two strangers are brought together and given a budget to complete a house renovation.
The idea is that the two strangers get to half the profits made at the end of the house sale to put it toward buying a house of their own.
36-year-old estate agent Dafydd and 35-year-old teacher Leon were paired together in the hopes of returning a profit on a £175,000 four-bedroom home, gifted to them to ‘do up’.
Whilst the house was in a great location, close to many amenities and a local park, it was clear that serious renovations needed to occur in order to bring it up to scratch.
The pair were then handed £25,000 meaning that, if all went well, any profits beyond a £200,000 sale were theirs to keep.
However, the boys struggled and a number of bad decisions soon saw costs unexpectedly spiralling.
Within their four-month deadline, a number of problems occurred including some mis-matched flooring levels and a series of design erros.
As the alterations took place, Leon expressed his worries, saying: “We have no solution, no answers right now. Will we be able to fix it? More importantly, do we have the budget to fix it?”
With £10,000 already spent on tradesmen who failed to deliver – the project was looking in tatters.
It later left Leon struggling as he admitted it was “constantly” on his mind
He said: “There are times I wake up in the night and I remember something we need to do. It’s not something we can leave at the front door and go home to relax.
“It’s constantly on my mind. The more I think there are only five weeks left before we have to sell, it feels the end is beyond our reach.”
As time ran out, it was clear the disaster property had gone wayward as it remained unfinished at the time of valuation.
An estate agent predicted figures of £290,000 to £315,000 to sell the house upon the finished product.
Show host Carys later informed the pair they had spent a whopping £75,000 – a huge £51,963 overspend.
After taking into consideration legal fees and other costs, the total spend amounted to £301,250 – around £100,000 more than initially predicted.
It meant that the house would have to be marketed at least at that figure in the hope of any profit for the boys.