The owners of a £2million flat have REFUSED to hand over the keys following a property raffle - because not enough tickets were sold.
Jonny Jackson and Harry Dee needed to sell 200,000 tickets at £10 each to reach the market value of the west London home.
But instead they sold just £277,000 worth.
Located on the famous Exhibition Road next to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the now-empty flat in South Kensington, London, had been newly renovated with designer furnishings by the pair who wanted to give one lucky punter a 'lottery win'.
Instead, they'll now receive £53,500 in prize money while the duo will keep £173,500 of the raffle's earnings to fund VAT, marketing and legal costs.
The trend of raffling properties has been met with fury by experts.
"If you want to play games then sell raffle tickets," buying agent Henry Pryor told the Times .
"If you want to actually sell a property then sober up and retain an expert to do it for you.
"I am struggling to think of a single redeeming feature about this."
Elsewhere, the organisers of a similar competition found themselves in hot water with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after it found the promotion had not been administered properly.
Two people complained that Raffle House had changed its entry method halfway through the promotion, offering free tickets to those making later entries.
This, and the extension of it closing date, were found to be in breach of the code.
Tickets to win the £650,000 one-bedroom flat in Brixton, south London, launched in April last year and the original closing date was June 2018.
This was extended and now the raffle is due to end on Sunday.
Raffle House founder and chief executive Benno Spencer said: "We treat matters such as this with the utmost seriousness and have attempted to enter into a dialogue with the ASA regarding a number of incorrect hypotheses contained in their rulings."
