Disabled Woman Faces Ruin After Buying A House Sight Unseen Which Is Now Collapsing

A retired, disabled police officer who bought a house at auction by telephone, is facing financial ruin after the house was hit by a landslide just eight days later and is now collapsing.

Sue Diamond, who suffers from dyslexia, impaired hearing, and restricted mobility, bought the clifftop house in February 2010 for £154,500 ($244,311) without seeing the house or having it surveyed.

The six-bedroom house lies just yards from the edge of Oddicombe Cliffs in Torquay, Devon, and is located in the South West of England.

A picturesque area with tremendous views of the sea and natural beauty Torquay is famous for, on paper it must have looked like the perfect place to see out a retirement.

But disaster was to strike just eight days after the auction. The first of a series of natural landslides first dragged the house’s garden down the clifftop into the sea below, then gradually turned the property’s foundation into crumble.

Since the first landslide, Ms. Diamond has been mired in legal action against Matthew Taylor, the builder she bought the property from, the Daily Mail reports.

While she maintains the house is now uninhabitable and only worth £3,500 ($5,528) , Taylor wants the whole of the balance owed.

In 2010 a judge agreed after it was revealed that buyers in the auction were warned that the house had severe structural damage and could be beyond economic repair.

Accordingly, the judge ordered Ms. Diamond to pay the Taylor the rest of the original sale price, the Metro notes.

Taylor now has a legal claim to collect the money, plus eight per cent annually, and a stake in Ms. Diamond’s other home in London which is worth far more than the Devon property.

The condemned house is Torquay is now a magnet for gawkers and tourists, but for Sue Diamond it represents the end of a dream.