1 / 15COMPLETEDRose Villas turned out to be more complicated than a typical auction buy. The house had been split off the school next door decades ago and was still registered to the school on the Land Registry, so completion waited nearly six months while the real owner was traced and paid. Inside, it needed a full strip-back after years of neglect. We merged the kitchen and dining room into one open space and added a new bathroom, both structural changes, and because we hadn't booked Building Control in at the right stage, we had to open the wall back up in two places, with a tenant already living there, to show them the steel beam before they would sign it off. Five lenders turned the mortgage down because the top floor sits partly over the school's land next door, before a broker found one comfortable with it. The house let quickly at market rent regardless, and the same family, with children, still lives there today.