logo
Beauty queen who won £6,000,000 Omaze mansion is denied keys over planning row

Beauty queen who won £6,000,000 Omaze mansion is denied keys over planning row

Metro20-06-2025
A beauty queen still hasn't received the keys to £6 million Omaze house she won in February due to row over planning.
Vicky Curtis-Crewell, a former Miss Wales finalist, scooped the north Norfolk mansion in February after entering an Omaze and Comic Relief raffle draw.
But the following month a member of the public raised concerns about the property and an investigation was launched by the local council.
It now says there had been certain breaches of planning control.
According to the Sun, these relate to a tennis court and swimming pool, as well as the overall size of the property.
After the win, Ms Curtis-Cresswell, originally from south Wales, said she felt 'pure joy'.
'Our lives changed forever and we became multi-millionaires.'
'It's crazy, one week, we're worrying about our old car breaking down, the next thing we've got a £6 million house.'
The 38-year-ol had been living at her in-laws' home and was hoping to find a place for her and her family.
An Omaze spokesperson told Metro: 'Omaze continues to work with North Norfolk District Council in relation to recommendations made regarding the property in Norfolk.
'Omaze has submitted a pre-application to the council and is submitting a retrospective planning application.
'Omaze reiterates that it guarantees no house winner would ever have to incur any costs whatsoever to remedy any historical planning issue.
'Omaze further guarantees that all house prizes are transferred to winners with good and marketable title.'
A spokesperson for North Norfolk District Council, meanwhile, told The Sun: 'We are waiting for an application to be submitted by the owners to try and regularise the current breaches of planning control.
'We are expecting an application to be submitted by the end of this month.' More Trending
The Metro has contacted the council for a comment.
Ms Curti-Creswell has said she plans to sell the 5,000sq ft home, which is modelled on the luxurious seaside houses in the Hamptons.
'I think we'll sell it to release the money and buy another amazing house somewhere in Wales,' she said.
As well as a tennis court and pool, the home comes with a summer house, secluded pontoon and £156,000 worth of furnishing.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Jamie Lee Curtis admits she is 'very excited' about new role as she confirms reboot of classic TV show
Jamie Lee Curtis admits she is 'very excited' about new role as she confirms reboot of classic TV show

Daily Mail​

time2 days ago

  • Daily Mail​

Jamie Lee Curtis admits she is 'very excited' about new role as she confirms reboot of classic TV show

Jamie Lee Curtis admitted she is 'very excited' about her new role in the reboot of the classic TV show Murder, She Wrote. The actress, 66, will step into the shoes of Dame Angela Lansbury to play mystery writer-turned-amateur detective Jessica Fletcher in a new film based on the long-running TV show of the same name. Jamie has admitted she can't wait to start filming on the project, following her recent role in Freakier Friday alongside Lindsay Lohan. She told Entertainment Tonight: 'Oh, it's … happening. We're a minute away, but yeah, [I'm] very excited. Very excited. 'But I'm tamping down my enthusiasm until we start shooting. 'I have a couple of other things to hustle, but then I'll get to enjoy that work.' Murder, She Wrote starred Lansbury - who died in 2022 aged 96 - and ran for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996. Bosses at NBC had previously planned to revive the show with Oscar winning actress Octavia Spencer. However, reports from early 2014 suggested the project had been canned. Curtis is currently busy promoting her new movie Freakier Friday with Lindsay Lohan - a sequel to the pair's 2003 comedy Freaky Friday - which is due for release in early August. The Oscar-winning movie star previously revealed she loved working with Lohan again and admitted the younger actress 'taught' her 'so much' on set for a second time. She told Variety: 'She has taught me so much. 'She has her team, where her two people would be standing on either side of a camera holding a big light. 'It's Lindsay lighting - that would have been good branding - they hold lights so that we look better.' Curtis is currently busy promoting her new movie Freakier Friday with Lindsay Lohan - a sequel to the pair's 2003 comedy Freaky Friday - which is due for release in early August The duo both executive produced and reprised their roles in Nisha Ganatra's mother-daughter swap sequel Freakier Friday, which hits US/UK theaters August 8 She added to the publication of the second film: 'I've learned a lot from her already. We had a good time. We love each other.' 'It's a movie for today. 'It is a happy, nostalgic, funny, sweet, heartfelt, Disney movie right at the end of the summer. 'There haven't been a lot of movies for women. 'And this is a love letter to every mother, grandma, sister, cousin and daughter." Curtis has several other projects in the works including a TV version of Patricia Cornwell's book Scarpetta alongside Nicole Kidman. She is also set to appear in the scam movie Sender and spy drama Spychosis.

A £4m house for £25 — are Omaze raffles too good to be true?
A £4m house for £25 — are Omaze raffles too good to be true?

Times

time5 days ago

  • Times

A £4m house for £25 — are Omaze raffles too good to be true?

Hannah Drury, 42, was trying not to feel deflated as she returned in near-darkness to her Somerset home from the primary school where she works as a music teacher. It was January 3, a lovely Christmas holiday with her family had just ended, and she had just attended a staff training day before the start of term. Then, she looked at her phone to find she had several missed calls and a voicemail message purporting to be from a representative of the property raffle company Omaze, asking her to call him back. 'I told my husband and we both agreed it was probably a friend mucking around or something,' says Hannah, who, along with her husband, Rupert, 50, is an opera singer in her spare time. 'I eventually decided I'd ring him back and, if it felt like a scam, I was going to hang up.' A few days earlier, Hannah had paid £25 to enter the draw for a £4 million luxury house on the shores of Coniston Water in the Lake District, although she had given it little thought. She had really been interested in the following month's draw, which was for a grand townhouse in Bath. 'I noticed how beautiful it was. But, you know, nobody ever enters these things with an expectation of a win, do they? It just hadn't even come into my psyche that this was ever an option,' she says. After calling the number back, and being convinced it wasn't a scam, Hannah was let in on the news: she and Rupert, who is a secondary school music teacher, had beaten hundreds of thousands of other entrants to win the property — along with £250,000 in cash, tax-free, to spend on its maintenance. Within minutes, an Omaze presenter called Paul Rees was knocking on the front door of the house in Frome that they share with their children, aged three, seven and nine, to whisk them off to do an interview. Startled by their sudden arrival, she was told that the Omaze staff and crew always learn who the winner is a day before, so they have time to get there. Suddenly, the day had become very weird indeed. By Monday, after a weekend digesting the news, the family were driving up to the Lakes to see their new home, booking some emergency time off work. 'We were put up in a beautiful hotel. And then we got the big reveal on Tuesday and we got to see the house for the first time. And then stayed overnight again. Then we came home on Wednesday and it was back to work.' After taking a vow of silence, unable to tell colleagues or friends, Omaze issued a press release on the Friday and, suddenly, the Drurys were mobbed. 'The parents were all in the playground coming up and hugging me. I couldn't believe it — I still can't,' she says. When they got to the house, they were overwhelmed, describing it as 'a million times better' than the pictures on the internet, noting that it's 'not very close to anything, which is delightful'. The nearest town, Coniston, is a 40-minute walk or ten-minute drive away. The home was bought from a local seller by Omaze after a two-year hunt. It had been redeveloped, opened out and modernised by the company, including being fitted with huge windows, which provided breathtaking views of the lake, the mountains and Grizedale forest. There is also a private jetty and six acres of natural woodland with streams and a spa house. Hannah and Rupert decided to keep the house and share it with their friends, who can stay free of charge. 'The cash prize of £250,000 to support the house means that I'm able to offer it to my friends and family and say, just go and enjoy it.' For the long term they have decided to list the house with a holiday lettings agency. Similar properties can go for £15,000 a week during peak season and can 'clear £100,000 a year'. They have no intention of leaving their native Somerset and will stay in their teaching jobs. 'I think we're both very happy with our lifestyle, with our careers, with our children being happy in school. We both have jobs that we love,' she says. Hannah and Rupert's extraordinary raffle win has meant a transformational change. 'This will change my children's lives. This is a multi-generation life-changing event,' Hannah says. However, that isn't always the case. How many winners actually keep their property? Before Covid, the idea of raffling a home was almost unheard of. But this changed during the pandemic, as swathes of the country were stuck at home and dreaming of pastures new. Sensing an obsession in the making, Omaze, which was founded in Los Angeles in 2012, raffled its first British home in 2020, and has now done 39. Its model is to buy, redevelop and give away properties worth many millions of pounds in its draws. At the same time, smaller players like Raffle House (founded in 2018) and Tramway Path (2019) started growing rapidly. Anoushka Millard, the vice president for property at Omaze, emphasises that it goes big on the bling — buying 'places with real desirability and wide-ranging appeal' with features such as 'landscaped gardens, swimming pools, home gyms and saunas, an office space, striking views, high-spec kitchens, as well as nearby amenities and attractions'. Omaze winners can either take the home for themselves, rent it out or sell it, with the money raised by the ticket sales going back to the company and a charity partner, which has included Comic Relief, London's air ambulance charity, the Teenage Cancer Trust and British Heart Foundation. The company says that it has raised £93.8 million since 2020. A few questions have occasionally been raised about Omaze's buying methodology in a handful of rare, but high-profile cases. Vicky Curtis-Cresswell, a former Miss Wales finalist who won a £6 million home in Norfolk in February — in Omaze's most expensive draw that also raised millions for Comic Relief — has been unable to move in after it emerged that an extension, tennis court and swimming pool at the property do not appear to have planning permission. At the time of winning the house, the 38-year-old had said it felt like an 'enormous weight' had been lifted from her shoulders, as she had been struggling to afford to rent at the time. Omaze says it 'takes all appropriate measures to guarantee that the winner will always receive a good and marketable title' including 'comprehensive surveys and checks, such as a level three building survey, title and Land Registry search, local authority search, EPC assessment, and environmental assessments'. 'Omaze has taken every possible step to bring the issue to a swift resolution, including submitting a retrospective planning application to address the recommendations made by North Norfolk district council. Omaze is committed to achieving a successful conclusion without any further delay – and will continue working closely with the council to ensure the matter is resolved as efficiently as possible.' Omaze says Curtis-Cresswell has received her £250,000 cash prize and will incur no costs to remedy the situation. A similar example took place when a raffle winner, Glen Elmy, from Walsall, gave back the keys to the home he had won on the Devon coast after three days in October 2021 and was given a cash payout of £3 million instead. The five-bedroom home was being threatened by coastal erosion, neighbours had told him. Omaze denied this, saying: 'As with all its properties, Omaze carried out extensive professional surveys, searches and inspections prior to purchasing the house in Devon. Omaze can confirm that none of these reports raised any material concerns with the property, including in relation to coastal erosion. The property is fully insurable.' Another winner, Darren Wordon, 49, and wife Mandy, won a £2.5 million property in Radford near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, in 2021. The home, known as Willowbrook House, was sold in December 2022, with flooding affecting it just before he moved in. 'During a period of exceptionally heavy rain before the prize draw launched, a blocked culvert within the vicinity of the property referenced caused water to temporarily pool and back up towards the property,' says Omaze. 'The culvert was unblocked and bypassed, allowing water to dissipate immediately and prevent any further issues. Omaze then had a specialist engineer carry out works to further secure the property against future extreme weather.' Mercifully, these examples do, however, seem rare. Win a house, sell it on Of those who have won Omaze homes, remarkably few appear to have kept them for more than a few months. Given the size of the homes, how far away they live from them and the cost of maintaining the homes, many winners prefer to sell them and pocket the cash. However, when putting them on the market, a few winners have reported finding that their valuations are far smaller than the price advertised by Omaze. Lauren Keene, 24, a nanny from Gloucester, won a draw for a £3 million mansion on the Wirral, but put it on the market for £2.5 million after spending a few nights there. An 81-year-old Southampton widow, Patricia Moule, who won a £4 million Highland mansion in 58 acres on the banks of Loch Rannoch in April, put it on the market weeks later for £3.975 million. Meanwhile, Tom Steenson, 63, put a Devon home on the market for £2.35 million — more than its original £2 million valuation — after opting to keep his job in the car industry and stay in Maidstone, Kent. Omaze did not say how many people had chosen to keep the properties, and stressed that it was up to the winners what they did with them and most make excellent money — but it's believed that only a handful kept them. Carol and Tom Steenson also sold their £2m Omaze house in Devon MARK FIELD PHOTOGRAPHY What about raffling your own home? If you don't have Omaze's marketing clout, the problem is advertising. You have to do this yourself, putting up a sign in front of your house, using social media, or websites such as Raffall where you can advertise them. However, Raffall's draws don't always drum up enough interest — 50 home-rafflers gave up and stayed put after raffles, while 18 succeeded. If your home has the necessary amount of bling, could you get Omaze to buy it from you? Probably not. Millard says she uses a network of special buying agents to procure the perfect houses according to the company's business model. She says that even though 'people email in from time to time' with suggestions, none have made the grade. Alisa Zotimova, the chief executive of AZ Real Estate, an estate agency in Marylebone, central London, is a sceptic. 'There are so many companies running raffles now. In 90 per cent of cases they don't sell enough tickets to make it worthwhile and the seller finds themselves back at square one.'

EXCLUSIVE Inside the most desirable Omaze dream house yet: Property guru who picks them reveals exactly how she makes them over as she shows us round - and tells how you can 'Omaze' your house too
EXCLUSIVE Inside the most desirable Omaze dream house yet: Property guru who picks them reveals exactly how she makes them over as she shows us round - and tells how you can 'Omaze' your house too

Daily Mail​

time19-07-2025

  • Daily Mail​

EXCLUSIVE Inside the most desirable Omaze dream house yet: Property guru who picks them reveals exactly how she makes them over as she shows us round - and tells how you can 'Omaze' your house too

I cannot tell you where I am, but I can guarantee that, come August 14, people will be talking about it up and down the country. That is when the next Omaze house draw will go live and entrants to the competition will be in with a chance of winning this home, where I spent a day with Anoushka Millard, Omaze's vice-president of property and partnerships. She is, crucially, the person charged with picking out these astonishing properties. Until then, the location is top secret.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store