AN electrician who has gone without power at his home for 28 years has decided to auction the property in favour of a more comfortable lifestyle.

Richard Checksfield lives an 18th Century-like existence in an isolated bungalow.

The 70-year-old, who has been an electrician for 55 years, reads by candlelight, keeps warm beside a coal fire and washes in cold rainwater.

But now he is planning to leave his home in York and move to Malta after his family encouraged him to give up his sparse existence.

He said: "I knew I couldn't live like this forever. I've always been a bit of a Hillbilly and rebel at heart."

His three-bedroomed cottage will go under the hammer at an auction on April 16, at Le Meridien Hotel, York, organised by Hunters Estate Agents.

It is estimated the bungalow, which has about a third of an acre of land, will fetch more than £120,000.

The property is within a conservation area and needs complete renovation.

Mr Checksfield, a passionate nature lover, has not dusted the house for 20 years because he does not want to disturb the resident spiders.

The house is filled with an assortment of junk, including hundreds of nuts and bolts and years' worth of empty wine bottles.

The garden is overgrown and has an old lifeboat nestled in the brambles.

Jon Wright, of Hunters Estate Agents, said there would be phenomenal interest for the cottage, adding: "In all my years as an estate agent I've never seen anything like it."