'I made £10,000 by reporting my neighbour - anyone can do it'
One woman has explained how she scooped a £10,000 reward - just by reporting an empty and run-down house in her neighbourhood.
Rebecca, 54, from Balham in Greater London, knew the boarded up property - a large, 2,000 sq ft late Victorian house - was being squatted in, and wondered what had happened to the owner.
After leaving a note and receiving no reply, she decided to report it to a company called YouSpotProperty.com, which rewards members of the public for spotting derelict houses.
If the property you find meets the eligibility criteria, then you will initially be awarded a £20 voucher for M&S or Amazon. But if YouSpotProperty goes on to purchase that home, then you get a 1% share of the property value, up to £10,000.
Rebecca said: 'I'd come across YouSpotProperty.com on social media and thought I'd give it a try when I uploaded a few lower value derelict looking properties. The house in question though – on the corner of my road - I thought would be the least likely to get anywhere.
"It was boarded up, but a neighbour had told me it was squatted in where there was a broken window. I'd left a note to the owner, whoever they were, in the letter box which I can see was taken, but I received no reply.
"Done up versions of such properties would fetch anywhere around £1.5million so I thought such a valuable house would ultimately be on the owner's radar.'
Rebecca is the second person to receive the maximum £10,000 reward since 2017. Last month, YouSpotProperty revealed it has handed out more than £1million in money and vouchers to members of the public.
Ben Radstone, co-founder of YouSpotProperty, revealed how the company discovered the owner was still alive, but was incapacitated and living elsewhere in care.
'A year ago we traced the owner's sister who has asked our advice as what to do to help her brother (the owner) liquidate his house so the proceeds could be put towards his care.
'In order to gain permission to act on her brother's behalf she had to gain 'court of protection for her brother – enabling her to legally make decisions on his behalf.
'We advised her on this in May 2024 and all the legals took the best part of a year. Fast forward to now and we were eventually able to secure the house for £1million.
'Listing a house in such a condition with a high street estate agent would otherwise taken ages to sell and mortgage buyers would struggle to gain finance for such a property – this is where we step in.'
In the past couple of weeks Rebecca received the phone call, informing her of her win. Rebecca, who has worked in television production on programmes such as Cash In The Attic, said the money will be used to repay a £5,000 loan to her mum, in addition to buying a "decent" computer. The rest will be put into savings and some set aside for holidays.
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