Imagine getting back to your place to find someone else living there. It’s literally like some weird kind of nightmare.
But with some people it’s a living hell, with one bloke returning to his land to find a £1.2million house on it to this man finding a family living in and redecorating his place.
Reverend Mike Hall had bought a home in Luton back in 1990. But over 30 years later, he found out someone else had actually sold it on, without his permission, for £131,000.
The clergyman was working up in north Wales when neighbours let him know that all the lights were on at his place, and someone was in there.
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And when Hall drove back to Luton, he found a new owner carrying out building work at the terraced house.
BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours looked into the situation as the bloke found himself in the absolute nightmare.
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, 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.
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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, 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.