Man walked into house he'd owned for 30 years to find someone living in it and redecorating
A man returned to his house to find somebody else living there.
The occurrence isn't exactly rare either, as an American bloke once returned to his land to discover a £1.2 million house built on it, in what makes up just a couple of stories involving homeowners' biggest fears.
In 1990, Reverend Mike Hall bought a home in Luton, and found out more than 30 years later that someone else had sold it on without his permission for a price of £131,000.
He had been working in north Wales when neighbours of his Bedfordshire home got in touch to tell him that the lights were on and someone was inside.
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The British clergyman drove back to Luton, only to discover the new owner doing work on the terraced home, along with his family.
Coming to help with the investigation was BBC Radio 4's You and Yours, as Hall found himself in the stickiest of situations.
He said: “I tried my key in the front door, it didn't work and a man opened the front door to me - and the shock of seeing the house completely stripped of furniture, everything was out of the property.”
Turns out, with further investigation, a fake driving licence was used to impersonate Hall, with a bank account set up to receive proceeds of selling the place.
The radio show also obtained phone recordings of someone pretending to be Hall and instructing solicitors to sell the house.
But that wasn’t the end of the property nightmare for the Reverend, the BBC reports.
In November 2023, after two years of court battles, Hall said ‘justice has been done’ as his name was finally listed as owner of the place on the Land Registry.
But then, after not seeing the property for two months, he found a new problem.
The bloke showed up with a builder to begin making plans for the place but when he got there, he noticed the window at the back was broken and the front door’s lock ‘had been punched out’.
Hall reckoned squatters had moved in, as the curtains were closed, lights switched on and boiler being used.
He’s worked out there’s been about £60,000 worth of damage to the house and it was reported that Bedfordshire Police advised him to go back to the courts for an Interim Possession Order to enable the arrest of the two people believed to be squatting.
Bedfordshire Police declined to comment as it is a live investigation, but confirmed that five people have been arrested in connection with the incident as the investigation continues.
Joshua Nair