A COUPLE who hoped to buck the housing market slump by raffling their home say they wish they had never thought of the idea.

Simon and Vicki Brown decided to raffle their £600,000 property, in Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, after failing to sell it on the open market last summer.

They originally hoped to sell 28,000 tickets, at £25 each, by December 24, last year, in order to make the money back on their house, which they built, as well as pay legal costs and donate cash to the Main Project charity.

But things began to go wrong when only 4,000 tickets were sold by the deadline and the Gambling Commission investigated the raffle to check it was legal.

Now some people are demanding their money back after hearing about the problems.

Mr Brown said he wished they had continued to try and sell the house in the conventional way.

“It has been a lot of hassle and, to be honest, if we could turn back the clock, I never would have raffled the house,” he said.

“We have had a lot of problems and many people have sent e-mails threatening to take us to court. It has been very upsetting.

“All we have ever tried to do is show we are a genuine family trying to sell our house.”

He said: “It has taken up a lot of our time and we will probably end up out of pocket by the time we have paid the legal fees and given money to the charity as we promised.

“The draw will run until June 1 unless we are really close to the target and then we can extend it by a month or three months.

“I don’t know how many tickets we have sold, but we have had quite a lot of interest.”

The couple had to change their raffle to include a spot the ball competition as part of the entry to comply with Gambling Commission regulations.

Mr Brown added: “We have had to refund quite a few people, but most were happy to transfer to the new format.

“We still have about 100 people to contact, so we would ask people to be patient as it does take time.”

If all the tickets are not sold, the raffle will still take place, with the winner receiving a cash prize. Mr Brown said the house would then be put back on the market.

The Gambling Commission said it could not comment on individual cases.