Property investor's shock at 'unexplainable level of damage' he discovered after buying new home

1 December 2023, 18:10 | Updated: 1 December 2023, 19:24

Footage shared by a James O'Brien caller shows the extraordinary destruction done to his newly-purchased property just outside of Durham.

Adam, fro, Solihull, told James he bought the house on auction in early September and completed on the property a month later, only to find the house in ruin.

"I did a site visit, couldn’t get in with the key, looked through the window - the house had been set on fire from the inside," he said.

"One of the neighbours came out and told us what had happened."

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He found the house stripped of its copper pipes, with radiators stolen and a burned porch affecting the front room.

After contacting County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, Adam discovered that they had changed the locks, having discovered a break-in and fire on September 5th - the day before the house went up for sale.

The seller's solicitors claimed they were unaware of what had happened, which Adam accepted but said: "The fact remains we bought a property which did not look, or match the description of the property in the auction."

The house was uninsured and Adam estimates it’ll cost up to £20,000 to fix the structural damage alone - a hefty sum, particularly given that the property set him back only £40,000.

It comes as National Trading Standards, a consumer protection body, told estate agents that they must include potentially undesirable factors relating to a property in their listings in order to prevent legal action as well as property sales collapsing further down the line.