BMV property, great yields, in our investment area, not a single penny had been spent and our offer had been accepted. Found this gem of a deal after trawling on rightmove for hours. What more can you want from a property! We called our solicitors and asked them to get the paperwork started, ‘Your boys are buying another property’. On top of that we were looking to complete the month before Christmas so a nice end to the year.

Fast forward a few weeks, the legal work is complete, and I collected the house keys. The best part is, one of our existing tenants found us a new tenant! After doing some reference checks, the first month’s rent hit the bank account! It was now time to enjoy the festive season!

But you said this was a refurbishment project?

One week before Christmas and I get a call from the neighbours for that same property. “We heard an explosion and your house has caught on fire”. I can’t tell you how my heart sank at this moment. I had so many questions! What had happened? Were the tenants safe? Was there an issue with the boiler? Was there an issue with the electrics?

I raced over to the house to figure out what had happened. The tenant had sublet the house to someone else. That tenant was

growing weed in the house!

They were playing around with the electrical circuit which caused the explosion in the house. The tenant and people who he sublet to both did a runner and we were left with a burned down house. I called the insurance company and they said the claim might not be valid as it was sublet, and they didn’t believe enough due diligence was done. This meant there was uncertainty as to whether they would pay out.

So, I’ve got a burnt down house, cost of damages of over £20k, mortgage payments going out and no rental coming in. This doesn’t sound like a lot to many investors but for a standard BTL purchase this was definitely not accounted for in the budget.

So what actually needed to get done in the house:

• There was a hole in the floor! The floorboards were all blown apart and you could see the room downstairs!

• There were about 40 plant pots that needed to be disposed off.

• The house needed a full rewire as there were wires coming out the ceiling and walls.

• Needed to ensure nothing had happened to the structure of the property.

• The walls needed to be replastered

• New fire doors needed to be installed.

• New windows had to be put in.

• New skirting board.

• Painting and redecorating the upstairs and downstairs

3 weeks later and we transformed the property to this!

We had new tenants come in (did background checks and further due diligence by using a different estate agent) and we were able to get all the work done! Finally completed my first refurbishment! Fast forward 5 months after an extensive back and forth with the insurance company, We received an email to say the claim had been accepted!

A late Christmas gift but we’ll take it!