Tragic past of home left empty since 1982
BBCA couple who have been living next to an empty home since 1982 say it has been a "absolute nightmare" with teenagers breaking in and structural problems plaguing the building.
Kathleen and Tom Wilson moved into their home on Station Road in Wingate, County Durham, in 1970 and their next door neighbour was a woman in her 50s who was engaged to be married.
Mrs Wilson said the marriage never happened and the woman next door became a real Miss Havisham figure - "there was no electricity she lit the house with candles".
The neighbour was moved to a care home in 1982 and the house has remained empty ever since, slowly becoming more overgrown and unsafe.
Mrs Wilson said: "She wasn't looking after herself, there's absolutely nothing in the house and there never has been.
"No electricity or running water or bathroom, there was a stand pipe in the backyard which she drank from and in winter she drank melted snow."
In the decades since the house was left uninhabited it has been auctioned multiple times but nobody has ever turned up and refurbished the home.
It remains one of 4,182 long-term empty homes recorded in statistics for County Durham from the Ministry for Housing and Communities.
The pensioners have repeatedly been promised action by Easington Council, Durham County Council and various MPs over the decades, but nothing has been done.
The BBC has seen letters from the early 2000s from Easington Council apologising for the lack of action and promising solutions.
Victoria Hall, Durham County Council's private sector housing manager, said the property has changed ownership several times and was last owned by a company which dissolved in 2021 before being passed to the Crown Estate.
She said: "A consultation was carried out in April 2025 with all interested parties, including neighbouring occupants, with a view to returning the property to private ownership and establishing whether any neighbouring residents wished to participate in the purchase.
"In July 2025 it was agreed that we would sell the property at auction as soon as legally possible."
The council said it will look at any interim action which it may be able to take.
'How many more years?'
The Wilson's have spent hundreds of pounds over the years making repairs to the property next door, as tiles fell from the roof and protective boarding fell of the building.
Mr Wilson said anti-social behaviour had been a problem at the house with teenagers breaking in.
He recently had to go up a ladder to replace boards which had been put up in the first floor windows which the council refused to repair.
Mrs Wilson said: "It has been an absolute nightmare, it's unsafe around the back.
"We are in our late 70s, how many more years are we going to have to live like this?"