A woman has revealed how she made £700 by reporting her neighbour's home to a property scheme that not many people may be aware of.
Mum-of-three and manager Ayyesha, 29 from Smethwick, West Midlands, contacted YouSpotProperty after getting fed up with her neighbour's locked up and abandoned home. It had been derelict for so long that fly-tippers would often leave their rubbish in the garden.
However, after reaching out, she couldn't believe her luck when she found out she would be receiving £700 following years of living with the "eyesore". Now, the abandoned home will be renovated and prepared for someone to move into it again.
READ MORE: Martin Lewis explains changes affecting new university students from Septemb
YouSpotProperty rewards people for reporting empty properties in England. Should the property meet the company's eligibility - including not being privately owned, up for sale and has not recently applied for planning permission - a £20 M&S or Amazon voucher will be rewarded.
But people could get more than that if the firm ends up buying the property, meaning you can get a one per cent share of the property value, up to £10,000.
Speaking to the Mirror, Ayyesha said: "We know from neighbours that the owner had once lived in it years back, yet for the past five years that we’ve lived next door, it had been left unoccupied - he’d returned maybe once a year only to sweep the front step.”
She added that ‘No one wanted to help’ and that ‘no action was taken’. Ayyesha went on to say: “Fly-tippers eventually started dumping mattresses on the front garden and this went on for nearly five years. We knew who the owner was and tried to track him down, but he failed to respond to any of our concerns, much to our frustration."
When Ayyesha first reported the derelict house back in 2022, she initially received a £20 voucher. But after the home went on to be cleaned up and put up for sale, she was stunned to be sent an email from YouSpotProperty saying she was eligible for £700.
All Ayyesha had to do to report the property was to take pictures of it and upload it onto the company's website. She said: "When something is too good to be true, it usually is, however, I called YouSpotProperty following the email and was immediately answered by their finance controller who said ‘you must be Ayyesha’ – I was gobsmacked and overjoyed.
"Initially, I thought I would be getting another voucher, following the £20 Amazon one I received in 2022 for spotting the house – I hadn’t clocked the one per cent reward incentive linked to the firm actually purchasing the property. I’m 30 this year, I didn’t have an 18th or a 21st, so this money will definitely go towards a celebration this year.”
Discover, learn, grow. We are Curiously. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
