A woman who bought a hoarder's house has been left furious after the previous owner's family demanded she give them the contents back. The homeowner purchased the property in 2018, with the housing contract also giving her ownership of all of its contents after the previous dweller passed away.
While cleaning and refurbishing the home, she found some antique items in amongst the mountains of rubbish, including a stunning vintage wedding dress and jewellery. However, after repairing the dress and posting a picture of it along with the jewellery on Facebook, the previous owner's family contacted her to demand the heirlooms back.
Taking to Reddit's Am I The A**hole forum, the woman asked if she was in the wrong for not engaging with the family and giving them the items back - which led them to call her out on social media.
As reported by the Mirror, she wrote: "I bought a hoarder 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, and some rooms had the junk filling them wall to wall and floor to ceiling). Well 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 '40s style, lace covered wedding dress. This woman took care of that dress untill she couldn't anymore, and it took just some minor work to restore it.
"I currently don't have a partner, but I decided that it would he the dress I will be wearing if I ever get married. While doing the cleaning, I reached to the heirs to pass on some pictures and momentos (Christmas personalized ornaments, some kids artwork etc.) and because of that, I had one of them in my Facebook friends list.
"After repairing the dress, I put it on with the jewelry 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?"
People were quick to point out that the Redditor hadn't done anything wrong.
One user wrote: "Legally, you are in the right. Morally, you are also in the right. Though I cannot speak for the woman whose things you now own, 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 honor 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 in the comments who claimed the dress meant more to the family, but one Redditor had some stern words for them. They commented: "You bought it AND then (more importantly) you did a shit ton of work to save and restore these things. Honestly, if I were the grandma I'd rather have my stuff go to a random stranger who gave a damn then anyone else.
"Also, on that note, I'm gonna call out everyone in the comments (fortunately not that many) 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."
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