I bought a 250-year-old flat & found a hidden door under the stairs – when I finally got in, I was completely stunned
A WOMAN who bought a 250-year-old flat was left stunned when she found a hidden door, and discovered what it led to.
Erin explained that they'd just been doing some work on her new home, when they knocked through by the stairs and found a staircase and a door behind it.
Along with the help of two men, Erin managed to explore the space, as one of her pals told her: "It's as big as your flat down here!"
"Shut up, man," Erin exclaimed as she realised that the staircase she'd initially seen went down a lot further than she'd first thought.
"Even more alarming is there's a door there. So that must go out onto the street," one of the men said.
Erin then showed the "secret room" that she'd "finally" been able to get into - a cavernous space which even had a fireplace on one side.
Read more Home stories
The walls had been painted pink at one point, but the colour was peeling off, and it was clear that the room had been sealed for quite some time.
Erin offered a further explanation in the caption for the TikTok video, as she said: "My flat is ‘basement flat’ - there has been no mention of anything underneath me, verbally or on the deeds.
"We were curious about storage under the stairs and decided to take a look.
"Once we broke through, and found the stairs, we explored alot of weird underground tunnels that smell like (s**t), navigated through dead end corridors and the massive built box in the middle of the room which is padlocked?! Ah!
"We found this beautiful room directly under my living room."
Erin went on to add that after speaking to her new neighbours, she discovered that the room used to be a cannabis grow house, but was
"raided and sealed" around "10 or 15 years ago".
"We've since found two more mystery doors and another staircase outside that leads down to the lower basement, which ill deffo be checking out soon," she continued.
"I WILL take better videos in the corridors below but i was too excited."
Attempting to work out her legal rights to the space, Erin added: "I own the leasehold but there is a freeholder.
"What do i do? Is it mine? Do i claim it? Help!"
"As someone who deals with leaseholds/freeholds, you will have a plan in your lease to show your boundaries," one person replied.
"Speak to your solicitor and see what was in your lease, if there's right of access, etc and see if there's anyway you could claims squatters rights.
"I believe you need to show you’ve ‘squatted’ for 10+ years without anyone changing or residing in the property.
"Don't invest any money yet into it."
"Speak to the solicitor you used when you bought the flat. You should also have a copy of the plan for your property," another added.
"It could be quite a complicated situation. If the outside access is across land that is part of you lease hold there could be a right of way access for the current owner of the ‘basement’.
"By knocking through you could now be trespassing.
"If it’s not part of your current property your solicitor could do the relevant searches to find out who owns it.
"Your last course of action would then be to speak to the lease hold to buy or properly seal it off.
"Left in it current state it will potentially cause you issues in your flat if it’s not being maintained."
"I say enjoy your new basement," someone else insisted.
"No need to get any government types involved!"
"I would say talk to the freeholder about it or the place you leased from," another wrote.
"But I would imagine it’s yours to use."
While someone else pointed out that the room still has a working light in it.
Read more on The Sun
"If it has electricity someone is currently paying the standing charge...someone else, or you?!" one questioned.
"How did it have a light already in it?" another asked.
