The tale of a immigrant family's house-buying problems in Dunedin features on TV2's My House My Castle on Monday.
South African couple Allan and Herme Spear and their family - a son, two daughters and nine grandchildren - began their move to New Zealand in 2004.
In 2006, Mr and Mrs Spear came to Dunedin for work and found a 100-year-old villa in the Glen area they believed had potential as a "do up".
After negotiation, they agreed to pay $116,000.
Mrs Spear said the house appeared not to have been cleaned for 20 years, let alone refurbished, but they could see it had potential.
They were keen to move into the house as quickly as possible and inspected the property with a cleaner two days before the settlement date in October 2007.
However, Mrs Spear said that night, after they left, the vendor set fire to a chair she was sitting in and as a result there was damage to the floor, carpets and walls in the lounge and smoke damage in all but two of the house's other rooms.
Mrs Spear said they were never told about the fire, they were denied access to the house on the settlement day and someone had attempted to cover up evidence of the fire.
It was their first property purchase in New Zealand and they did not realise they could have insisted on a pre-settlement inspection.
The couple discovered the fire damage only after they had picked up the keys at the agreed time late on the day of settlement.
Mrs Spear said she had respiratory problems and, at first, could not even enter the house because of the smell of smoke.
"It was a pretty rough time."
The couple did move in but at the first opportunity told their lawyer of the problem and an attempt was made to stop the cheque.
However, it was too late and the response from the vendor's lawyer was:
"Sorry, the money's been paid over. Too bad."
Mrs Spear said they have been left with a house that is barely liveable.
They have borrowed $10,000 over and above their mortgage to replace smoke-damaged scrim and wallpaper with gib board but have been unable to afford to have the plastering and wallpapering done.
They have also been unable to replace the smoke-damaged carpets which have been removed from the house.
Mrs Spear said during the filming of My House My Castle they were led to believe they might obtain a settlement of about $7000.
However, since the filming, the best offer made by the lawyer acting for the vendor has been $2000.
The couple rejected it.
Mrs Spear said the programme's producers had told them there was nothing more they could do and advised them to go to the Disputes Tribunal.
The dispute is currently before a tribunal mediator.
Mrs Spear said the uninsulated house was neither rentable nor sellable and her daughter and grandchildren, who were house-sitting the property, were suffering from the effects of its damp condition.
The "legal face" of the programme, "crusading lawyer" Rob Harte goes on to describe the Spears' case as "just one example of what some unlucky buyers have to deal with".
