Homes Under The Hammer's Martin aghast as guests commit 'sin' with messy house
Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martin Roberts was taken aback by the chaotic state of a seemingly tidy Welsh house.
Roberts claimed that the buyers had committed a cardinal sin when they agreed to purchase the property. From the exterior, the three-bedroom, mid-terrace house located in the county of Rhondda Cynon Taf appeared to be a neat auction property and quite a steal at a guide price of £104,000. However, the interior told a different story altogether.
Upon stepping inside, Roberts was greeted with an unexpected sight - the previous occupant's belongings were scattered haphazardly across the floor, furniture was randomly placed in various rooms, and certain areas were in dire need of a thorough cleaning. The house had an eerie feel to it as if someone had just stepped out for the day and would return any minute. But no one was coming back, and the house was heading to auction in its current disarrayed state.
Martin was stunned by the property which he described as a mess (BBC)Roberts, a seasoned property professional, has seen everything from damp to outdated decor on the show. However, not many houses featured over the years have presented such a stark contrast between a modern exterior and a messy interior.
In a candid revelation, Martin shared: "It's obviously full of the previous occupant's belongings, which always makes looking around houses quite tricky; it's difficult to disassociate yourself from the emotion of seeing stuff like this, but we are looking at the property, not the bits and pieces in it, which you're going to have to clear out - a long weekend should get that sorted." Despite the initial shock of the property's cluttered state, Martin remained unfazed. In fact, he was rather impressed with the house's size and layout, even finding the open-plan lounge diner with garden access 'rather nice'.
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However, his enthusiasm took a hit upon entering the kitchen. The sight of unwashed dishes in the sink, dirty coffee mugs on grimy countertops, and an oven shrouded in filth and grease was a stark contrast. He remarked: "Tentatively exploring the house because this is the kitchen, and if the rest of the house is in a bit of a mess then you can almost guarantee that the kitchen is not going to have had a clean for a while!
The property was full of the possessions owned by the previous occupants (BBC)"But, again, this is all superficial - the cabinets are new, the appliances look in a reasonable state - and you've just got to be a bit big and grown up about this because this is just a mess and you can just sort it out." In a shocking twist of events, Martin was taken aback not just by the chaotic state of the house, but also by the reckless manner in which new owners Lisa and Andrew had purchased it. The audacious couple had snapped up the property without laying eyes on it first, flouting one of the cardinal rules of Homes Under The Hammer for buying a property at auction.
The daring duo shelled out a hefty £130k at the auction for a new home for delivery driver Andrew, aiming to move him closer to nursery director Lisa. Their plan was to embark on their first joint property project together, blissfully unaware of the pandemonium that lay beneath the clutter and mess until they collected the keys.
Lisa confessed: "We didn't really come and have a visit, we bought it totally blind, we looked at the images, thought it looked alright - just needed a clean - that's what we thought. We should have, perhaps in hindsight, come and had one of the viewings, but we didn't."
Lisa confessed that she and Andrew hadn't visited the house prior to purchasing it (BBC)The couple had initially planned to plunge into six months of renovation work with the help of friends and family, setting aside a budget of £5,000 - £10,000 to spruce up the house. However, when the show returned 10 months later, it was clear that the house had thrown some unexpected challenges their way. Hidden beneath the mess was the need for a complete rewire, which resulted in even more chaos as plaster was chipped off and floorboards were ripped up.
Lisa revealed: "And the ground floor was very uneven so we had to arrange to have it levelled." In addition to this, the couple decided to reopen the doorway from the kitchen to the adjacent dining room to create a more fluid ground floor layout, and installed new patio doors in the dining room.
In a dramatic turn of events, the damaged chimney breast, victim to a leak, has been repaired and replastered. The three bedrooms have undergone a makeover - cleaned, tidied, and given a fresh coat of paint along with new furniture. The bathroom required a thorough scrubbing, and all windows were in dire need of resealing. Outside, the rear garden was stripped bare, trees chopped down, and more work was underway, including the creation of off-road parking at the front.
The renovation was carried out by a dedicated team of local contractors, friends, and family. Their assistance proved invaluable when, just a week before the show's return, a significant leak from a broken kitchen pipe wreaked havoc. The couple had to call on the local team for help. The budget ballooned beyond the estimate to £15k, pushing the total spend to a whopping £145,000. However, the local agent estimated a resale value of between £145,000 to £150,000, indicating that the couple might break even or squeeze out a modest £10k profit.
Andrew, however, chose not to move in. The potential rental yield was too tempting to ignore, with a monthly rental of between £750 and £850 generating a 7% yield. This proves that sometimes, even when you throw caution to the wind and buy an auction property without viewing it first, luck can be on your side - where there's muck, there's brass indeed! This story was featured in series 26, episode 52, currently available for viewing on BBC iPlayer.
* This article was crafted with the help of an AI tool, which speeds up The Mirror's editorial research. An editor reviewed this content before it was published. You can report any errors to [email protected]
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