A HOMEOWNER who bought a hoarder’s house spent four years cleaning piles of junk – before the ex-owner demanded it all back.
The new home owner discovered some treasures amongst the trash, which she described filling some rooms from floor to ceiling, that the hoarder’s family had discarded.
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After four years of cleaning and updating the property the woman found more than £17K, jewellery, and a vintage lace wedding dress from the 1940s.
Faced with a moral dilemma about whether she was entitled to the valuable items, she took to Reddit’s ‘Am I the A**hole forum’ where she wrote: “I bought a hoarder’s house back in May 2018. It is a big six bedroom four and a half bathroom house.
“When I bought it, the contract stated that I take ownership of the house and everything in it.
“The lady who owned it died, and her heirs could not deal with the stench and literal mountain of junk and waste in it (you could only open the door not even 8 inches.)
“It took me these last four years to finish cleaning, fixing and updating it. While doing the cleaning I made sure to check everything before throwing it out.
“Ended with more than £17k of money, some nice jewellery and antique furniture, and finally a stunning 40’s style, lace covered wedding dress.”
The Reddit user described how she restored the vintage dress because she could tell the elderly lady had taken care of it until she died.
She appreciated the dress so much she even claimed she would wear in on her wedding day if she ever got married.
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Some heirlooms and sentimental objects such as personalised Christmas ornaments and children’s artwork were returned to the hoarder’s family through Facebook.
The lady continued: “After repairing the dress, I put it on with the jewellery and posted a pic on Facebook.
“Well, this woman saw it and asked for the dress and heirlooms back.
“I refused to give them back, and legally they can’t do anything. Also if they meant that much to them, they should have cleaned the house on their own, not sell it to me.
“Now she, and all her family, are calling me out on social media. Am I the a**hole?”
The Reddit community were quick to come to the woman’s defence and told her she was legally and morally in the right.
One user wrote: “I can give you insight into how I would feel if I died before I could find homes for my treasures: I would want someone who cared enough to restore and respect the items to have them.
“You saw the beauty in them, as did she. You didn’t just chuck it all in a dumpster.
“Take them, wear them, be happy to honour the original owner. Her family did not view these things as anything but a hassle.”
Someone else said: “It’s a lot to clean a hoarder’s house.
“They could have hired a service if they were mentally unable to do it but instead, they dumped it on someone else who paid them to take the house and all that’s in it.
“If they cared about the items they should have offered you money or asked you to keep an eye out.
“It’s yours, you did the work. I don’t care how cheap you got the house, it probably doesn’t ‘even out’ like someone said because hoarding houses are…disasters, simply put and it takes a lot to clean and restore them.”
There were some people who disagreed, but one user responded to them and commented: “I’m gonna call out everyone in the comments who say that this dress is more important to the family member. Umm, no.
“It’s not that important to the family.
“Their convenience was more important. Now that all of the hard work is done SUDDENLY it all means so much to them. That’s ridiculous.
“My grandmother was a hoarder and my family spent MONTHS cleaning out her house after she died. We did that because our family heirlooms and history meant something to us.
“It wasn’t easy. It was costly and time-consuming and miserable, and really important.
“You don’t get to come back later, after all of the work is done, and decide you’re suddenly entitled to the fruit of someone else’s work.”
The is not the first time valuables have been found in a hoarder’s home, another couple bought a property and found a huge filled safe.
Other homes have revealed darker secrets under the rubbish piles.
