A hoarder's house has been completely transformed into a 'palace' after it was found piled high with rubbish with thick grime on all surfaces.
The home, in Runcorn, had rats running around the mountains of rubbish that filled it, but has been renovated and now looks completely unrecognisable.
Colette and Stephen Dowd are the new owners of the property, which was actually on their street. They had seen rats running around it and had even had to tell their grandchildren not to play outside because the infestation was so bad.
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Cleaning company Merseyside House Clearing took on the mammoth task which included a sea of items piled up, including electrical appliances like toasters and kettles, as well as hundreds of magazines.
Footage from inside the building shows the stacks of items stretched all through the property. A dead rat was even found on top of the fireplace. Other areas had holes in where the animals had chewed their way through.
When the couple took the house on, hoping to restore it, they said they had 'no idea' of the extent of what was inside the house.
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Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Colette said: "We didn't know the extent of it, there was no way of knowing they were living like that. We just kept saying there's something not right here."
But, in an incredible transformation, the home now looks spotless, bright and cosy.
George Mensah, from Merseyside House Clearing, said: "It's an absolute palace."
Stephen said: "We bought this house last August and it was in a state of disrepair.
"Next thing we knew there were rats running around our garden, they'd made their own home here. When we eventually got in, it had to be specially cleared out.
"The damage was just unbelievable. There was holes in the walls, the doors were hanging off, we've had to replace everything.
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"And as you can see, we've completely refurbished the whole house, with new doors, new skirting boards, every wall has been re-skimmed.
"And upstairs has been completely rebuilt and there's a new bathroom with a new en suite. There's a new cloakroom downstairs.
"Everything, there's new radiators, new fridge and freezers - literally everything. We've had about 40 skips.
"We've redone the whole garden and hopefully now the new tenants can move in this week. A nice family are moving in, hopefully they can look after it and we can all get on with our lives.
"We're all made up with it."
Topics: UK News