Sara Haigh has a crumbly old property crammed full of nasty surprises such as bottles filled with urine into a beautiful holiday home close to the seafront in Plymouth
A pensioner poured £100,000 and three years of her life into turning Britain’s ‘most disgusting home’ into a coastal paradise.
Sara Haigh, 65, bought the garbage-filled hoarder’s house in Plymouth, Devon on a whim after being given just 15 minutes to view it before it went to auction in 2021. A mishmash of overgrown ivy and weeds clung to the gruel-grey pebbledash walls of the three-bed semi on Camperdown Street when Sara first set her eyes on it.
The ferocious foliage made the property stand out from the rows of neat, colourful homes in the trendy neighbourhood just a short walk from the city’s historic harbour. But the home’s unsightly exterior had nothing on the horror that was hidden on the inside.
Sara, who lives with her partner Paul Brown, 70, in nearby Stonehouse, said: “As we waded through the overgrown plant life, it was clear an enormous amount of work and investment was needed. But once we got inside, the scale of the work needed was truly shocking.”
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Wall-to-wall rubbish greeted Sara. The kitchen counters were stacked with pizza boxes and food wrappers, the floors were carpeted with hundreds of plastic milk bottles and tins. Grime caked the walls, mould had taken root, and a ceiling had collapsed – the squalid den was a haven for rodents that constantly hummed with flies. But that was not the worst of it.
Sara added: “Oh my God, there were thousands of bottles of cider filled with urine as well as syringes.”
And yet, after renovating her own home over two decades and itching for a new project, Sara’s instinct was “this could be the one”.
The couple won the auction, stumping up £145,000 for the property and throwing their lives into turning it into a proper family home once more. Sara said: “The first thing I needed to do was the roof, because there was ivy growing from the inside of it. So, that all had to be stripped off.
“The roof has left lots of debris, which includes the tiles and the felt, so it all had to come off again. The house was like a jungle because the garden was so overgrown, the weeds must have been probably 12 feet high in the back garden.
“While we tried to do as much as possible within our abilities, it was clear we needed help from tradesmen. Hiring the right people, however, proved difficult. We had problems that needed costly rectification work, which resulted in taking legal action to get some of our costs back.
“One tradesman still owes me several thousand pounds for work not completed by him. We have since learned that he owes money to many other people across the South West. At the time, I worked at the local hospital as a nurse, and there weren’t many shifts available.
And, not all of Sara’s family were convinced about the project from the start.
Sara added: “My sisters were on a flight together, about to go on holiday, when they saw an article about the house being ‘Britain’s most disgusting property’. They were laughing about it and thought, who would buy something like this? They found out that person was their sister when they got home.:”
The property is now back on the market with Purplebricks for £300,000, which would see Sara and her partner make a £55,000 profit if the asking price is met.
“Now, after over three years, we have a unique house that would be ideal for a family. All the fundamental services have been completely replaced with new plumbing, electrics and gas central heating. The kitchen is complete. There is a family bathroom, an en-suite shower room in the master bedroom, as well as a downstairs toilet.
“The three bedrooms are of a good size, and the connected lounge and dining rooms are very spacious. What was once described by a neighbour as a jungle, the outside space includes a large grassed area as well as an equally large patio.
“I’m proud of all of it, to be honest, it does look amazing compared to what it was like, but in particular, the garden looks great, especially compared to how we found it.”