Can you imagine the shock of getting a phone call from a company who employ 'fortune finders' to say you had just inherited a property from a total stranger? After checking that it was not a scam, a brother and sister from Durham found out that a distant relative that they had no idea existed had died without a will and her sprawling Welsh farm had been left to them.
Pam and Lawrence were speechless when they found out they were the rightful inheritors of an 18th century farmhouse in Wales, and the moment that they saw the rundown property left to them by a stranger was captured as part of Channel 4's new property programme, Key to a Fortune.
Presented by Jean Johansson, who many viewers will recognise from Channel 4's A Place in the Sun, the show uses a team of fortune finding experts who use a variety of methods including family trees to unite abandoned properties with their unsuspecting inheritors. Episode two of this brand new series sees siblings Pam and Lawrence given the keys to the ramshackle house and derelict barns which were once the home of Mary Stephenson, who died on August 3, 2021.
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Pamela said: "When I picked up the phone I thought they'd got the wrong people, we'd never heard of Mary so we just thought it was a scam at first. It's unbelievable really." Lawrence added, "We didn't even know we had family in Wales!" But the family tree revealed that Mary was the daughter of Pam and Lawrence's great grandfather's brother.
With no will written by Mary the house had been left empty and had fallen into disrepair, a renovation project waiting to greet the duo as they made the journey from Durham to the Carmarthenshire farmhouse to meet Joan and have a tour around their new property. But will Pam and Lawrence want to hold on to the keys that they have only just been given or pass them on to someone else?
The pair arrived to take a tour around their new acquisition and first impression was rather underwhelming - both are silent and just stared at the rundown home. Lawrence broke the stunned silence, he said: "Well, it needs a bit of work." But then he felt more optimistic as he added: "It’s not that bad really, you know it’s still standing, it’s got a roof on. It just wants a bit of care doesn’t it?"
As Jean took the new owners around the ramshackle interior, its obvious that it was a renovation project but the potential of the property began to dawn on the pair, and by the time they went outside to have a rummage around the barn and various outbuildings, they were captivated.
Pam and Lawrence then learned that the farm came with about 50 acres of land and they were shocked, again, and Pam even shed a few tears. She said: "I'm just thinking about Mary, so sad for her, that she had to be on her own, I just hope she had some nice neighbours and friends that helped her out a little bit."
Property expert Kunle Barker had a look around the site and told the pair that the house and buildings were worth around £350,000 but the entire estate could get up to £500,000 if sold. He added that if they could achieve planning for a holiday let in the barn and some glamping pods on the land, costing around £30,000 to have the plans drawn up and submitted, Kunle said that the whole package could probably double the value of the property. The alternative was to spend potentially up to a £200,000 to bring all the buildings back to life as dwellings.
In the meantime the fortune finders had been busy and found a layer of cousins from a different branch of the family tree which had to be added to the potential inheritors - in total 11 - so the decision about what to do with Mary's farm became a lot more complicated with a lot more voices in the conversation.
Lawrence said: "It's not as easy as we thought it would be, trying to get everybody on the same page as well as getting in touch with everybody. But they've been very appreciative of it, thankful that we are doing the work." Pam added: "It's really difficult with half of us thinking we should get the planning permission and thinking we should sell it after we get it the permission, and the other half thinking the opposite."
Cousin Jo was firmly in the keep it camp, she said: "Yes, it could all be much quicker if we just get the planning permission, spend the money and sell on, but then we've got no guarantee that whoever buys it is going to care, I know we didn't know about Mary but we now we care about her and I think that her inheritance should be spent wisely and that the land that she loved shouldn't be spoilt too much by somebody who might over-develop."
There was three choices for the family - keep it, get plans for it, immediately sell it - and finally the family came to a decision. As the age of the beneficiaries ranged from 55 to 96 it was eventually agreed to sell the property at auction, as soon as possible, with the hope of achieving £500,000.
Lawrence said: "That's what the majority of people want to do now so it looks like we're just going to go to auction and sell the property and the land. But it will still be interesting to find out what happens to the place afterwards. It has brought us a connection to Wales which we didn't have before."
Pam added: "And we are very thankful to Mary, for what she's done for us, this inheritance was a complete surprise." This story was episode two of the first series of Key to a Fortune, currently available to view on Channel 4's catch-up service.
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