Man moves out of flat and now lives in £800 car vowing 'to never pay rent again'
A man who was tired of paying extortionate sums on rent is now living in a car after ditching his 'shoebox' flat.
HGV driver Yavor Dantzarov, 33, had been renting a tiny flat in south London from £600 per month, but decided to convert his Ford Fiesta into a home to cut his monthly outgoings. He bought his second-hand ride on Facebook Marketplace for £800 and it cost him less than £1,000 to kit it out with everything he needed for a life on the road.
He says he will "never go back" to renting after spending six weeks in his home on four wheels. Yavor cooks his meals out of his car by using a gas camping stove and sleeps on a bed in his boot. The 'nomad', who also goes by the name of Jesse James, bought a gym membership for £23 per month which gives him 24-hour access to hot showers and toilets.
Yavor, who has already visited more than 70 places across the south of England in his makeshift camper-car, told PA Real Life: “I’m a driver in my soul… I just like to drive and be on the road. No more houses for me, I’m finished with that. For me, having four walls around you is like a prison and you have to pay for this – no thank you.”
Yavor bought his 2001 Ford Fiesta MK 405 on Facebook Marketplace for £800After moving to London in June 2023 after work started drying up in Eastbourne, Yavor found a “shoebox” room. “I found this disgusting room in Kingston upon Thames for £150 per week,” he said. “It was just a shoebox”. But he did not sign a formal tenancy agreement and the landlord asked Yavor, who is originally from Bulgaria, to move out just a few months later.
Pet owners driving with dogs face £5,000 fine if they break these rules
“I started looking for another room but I didn’t have the money to pay for a deposit so it was impossible for me,” he said. “My friend had recently bought and converted a van and this motivated me to turn my Fiesta into a camper van.” Yavor spent the next four days and nights working around the clock to turn his 2001 Ford Fiesta into a house on wheels.
Yavor assembles the wheelchair cushions to make a 'comfortable' mattress“I spent four days, all day and almost all night and I have been living in it ever since,” said Yavor. "I took everything out, removed the seats and built a simple wooden frame to level the floor.” Yavor put insulation in to keep warm during the winter and installed an extractor fan.
Next, he ordered foam panels on Amazon which are normally used as wheelchair cushions and can be assembled to make a “comfortable” mattress. “They are 10cm thick, memory foam, and cost me around £100 but they are really good and very comfortable,” he said.
He then hit the road, sleeping in car parks near forests and beaches, as well as quiet residential areas, although he tries to avoid this as much as possible. “I am a nomad,” he said. “I was not born to be in one location, I want to see the map”.
So far, Yavor has visited more than 70 places across the UK, all of which he plots on his Google map. “When you see my map it looks like an Amazon delivery driver,” he said.
A gym membership with more than 300 sites across the UK ensures Yavor has access to warm showers and running water. “I got a membership for £23 per month and you have 24-hour access to showers with hot water, good pressure and free toilets,” he said.
For cooking, he uses a gas camping stove which he places on the floor in front of the driver door. “I just put the stove on the ground and start cooking,” he said. All in, the conversion has cost Yavor around £1,000, although the majority was spend on his 700 watt amplifier and JBL subwoofer.
“I have put a lot of things in that are not necessary,” he said. “But the actual build is not very expensive – less than £1,000.” Yavor works as an HGV driver for an agency which gives him the flexibility to line up jobs in different places, most recently in Croydon.
“Last month I was in Croydon and found this really nice place, literally five minutes away from my work, next to the park on a dead end road,” Yavor said. “But I prefer to be in the countryside, in the woods or by the beach, far away from people.”
Asked whether he is concerned about security, Yavor said it does not concern him in the slightest. “Sometimes I fall asleep with the boot open looking at the stars,” he said. “I’m not afraid – I feel so alive now.”
'Dangerous' driver sparks fury after placing 'insane' note on back window
Yavor, who is single, is not worried about his somewhat cramped car getting in the way of finding love. “They’ve got flats, or at least most of them do,” he said of his would-be partners. He has no intention of moving back into a flat but would like to save up and one day convert a Porsche Panamera into a camper van.
“To be honest, I love it and I don’t miss anything,” Yavor said. “If I could go back in time, I would have done this 10 years earlier. I don’t want to just go to work and go home, go to work and go home, go to work and go home, that’s prison and I don’t want to be in prison anymore.”
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
