A couple that won a dream $4.2 million house spoke out about how it had become a nightmare over a dispute with the man who gave it away in a giveaway.
Kevin and Andrea Griffin initially spoke about how winning the multi-million-dollar pad from Adrian Portelli was ‘life changing’, appearing in videos posted to the social media for LCMT+.
LCMT+ is a ‘premier’ Australian subscription service which promises to ‘facilitate access to exclusive deals’ to save shoppers money on purchases.
As part of this subscription however people can enter giveaways, in some cases even being given homes to keep.
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The Griffins were announced as the winners of one of these giveaways, being offered the option between $3,000,000 in money or ownership of a fully paid off house worth $4,250,000.
The house in question was bought from an auction following the Australian reality show The Block in which couples compete to renovate houses for the highest auction price.
LCMT+ was founded by millionaire Australian Portelli, who posted an emotional video of the Griffins accepting the keys off him and praising his services.
Conflict came however when the couple accused Portelli of reneging on part of the deal, claiming that he removed $100,000 worth of appliances from the home which they understood as being part of the deal.
This included home appliances and a wine collection which the Griffins claim was part of videos promoting the giveaway.
Portelli posted footage of the couple being shown around the house and pointing out things they said were missing, claiming the pair were ‘ungrateful’ for the winnings.
The Griffins responded by releasing CCTV which appeared to show Portelli and his associates removing the items from the home the day before they were set to move in.
Now, Portelli has decided to take things even further by auctioning off all the items he is accused of removing from the home. The catch however, is that all the items will go for $1 each.
The millionaire said that ‘because we want it to go to someone that is going to be grateful and deserving’ 100 per cent of the profits would go to Australians effected by homelessness.
He added in the announcement, per news.com.AU: “We’re discussing how many people out there will just be grateful to have a roof over their head, let alone a $4.3 million furnished home mortgage free.
“So what better way to get you guys involved.
“We are going to get rid of this, someone’s going to win it for $1 and all the proceeds are going to go towards changing people’s life who will be grateful just to have a better night.”
Speaking to the Herald Sun Andrea Griffin said of finding the CCTV of Portelli removing the appliances and wine: “We were just like, what the hell?
“Why has he done this?”
Portelli claims that the terms and conditions did not specify the couple could keep the items, just that it would be a fully furnished house, saying in another video: “It was just part of the show, it wasn’t in our t’s and c’s.
“Our t’s and c’s say this is a fully-furnished house, which is what we delivered on.
“Whatever I do with these items is up to me. Wherever I want to use them personally or I want to use them to stage future giveaway houses, who bloody cares.
“Unfortunately, it’s people like this that ruin it for everyone and it makes us not want to do things like this again.”