A ‘Block’ Bidder Has Been Accused Of Stealing $100K Worth Of Furniture
The Block has racked up a whole lot of drama this year. Season 19 has just started airing on TV, but there have already been some fiery disputes with neighbours in Melbourne’s Hampton East and a whole heap of beef served up between the contestants.
We’ve summed up what you need to know below, from returning contestants to “illegal” activity, plus the houses are now officially on the market.
Here’s all the drama from The Block 2023, including why the contestants are in for a rude awakening.
The Block couples are competing for a $100,000 prize. Photo credit: Channel 9, The Block
One contestant goes on live radio to bitch about another Blockhead.
We love a bit of multi-media whinging.
For those watching along, you’ll know that Kristy and Brett from The Block have been burning bridges left, right and centre. But their latest fallout is with the team of sisters, Eliza and Liberty. Kristy has been making claims that Eliza and Liberty have been getting “special treatment” from Channel Nine – which we’re pretty sure kicked off after Eliza revealed to the group that she used to work as a Personal Assistant for Hamish Blake and Andy Lee for almost 10 years. And yes, if you’re doing the TV maths in your head, Hamish and Andy both have shows on Channel Nine (Legomasters and The Hundred) so they are darlings of the network.
Eliza and Liberty on The Block 2023. Image credit: Nine Network
“Liberty and Eliza get gifted everything, every week. I don’t know how they’ve blown out their budget because they get given money every single day,” Kristy said during the episode. “They get everything handed to them on a silver platter, ‘You woke up this morning! Here’s $500.’ You know what? We’ll get a handout every fucking day of the week, then we’ll be sweet.”
A producer then chimed in to tell the couple that there is strictly no favouritism between teams. However, Kristy and Brett opted for the ‘feelings over facts’ response, saying: “I don’t need reassurance. If this is how we feel then this is how we feel.”
Kristy and Brett on The Block 2023. Image credit: Nine Network
Eliza wasn’t very pleased with this airing on national television, so she decided to hop on national radio to share her side of the story.
“This actually really annoyed us,” she told Hit Breakfast with Maz & Matty. “We all had a level playing field when we started but I’m going to be honest with you, when you’re not treating people with respect, when trades don’t want to work with you, when you’re making crew cry, it really tends to flick people away.”
She then went in on how Kristy and Brett made people feel during the filming of The Block.
“Kristy and Brett would make things really unpleasant for people. They would kick and scream and yell. It wasn’t a very nice environment to be in,” she stated before pulling the convo back to the “special treatment” allegations. “[The special treatment allegations] really upset us, our integrity being questioned because we were just kind and respectful people. And if you want to call that a game plan that we were being ourselves and being nice and pleasant to be around it just shows that when you give kindness you just get kindness in return.”
Adrian ‘Mr Lambo’ Portelli addresses claims he took $100K from Sharon and Ankur’s house.
Serial The Block bidder Adrian Portelli, also known as ‘Mr Lambo’, has hit back after the Herald Sun broke a story about Sharon and Ankur’s house, which he purchased last year for $4.25 million.
The publication shared some CCTV footage that appeared to show Adrian and a few others removing a bunch of stuff from the house before he gave the house away for free as part of his LMCT+ raffle business. The Herald Sun alleged that the group walked off with pricey Smeg appliances, a meat smoker, a treadmill, and $50,000 of wine.
Adrian Portelli and Scott Cam on The Block 2023. Image credit: Instagram/@adrian_portelli
Adrian talked about the allegations on his Instagram Story, saying that he was in the process of starting legal action against the publication. “At some point in time you have to stand your ground and say enough is enough. I’ve instructed my lawyers to commence defamation action immediately.”
He also shared a video from this year’s The Block, pretending that he was stealing things from inside the 2023 houses. “Currently checking out The Block houses, and just looking [for] what’s around that I can take. Everything that’s not hard finishing, that’s not bolted down, it’s not safe in my hands,” he joked.
Adrian also used the messy situation to promote his next giveaway, which will apparently benefit a homeless shelter. He’s giving the public a chance to win the missing items from Sharon and Ankur’s house, and while it’s nice that the charity will be the real winners on the day, he hasn’t said why he chose to remove some items before handing over the keys.
Winners of Adrian Portelli’s The Block giveaway share their surprise.
This comes after Andrea and Kevin Griffin, the lucky recipients of Adrian’s giveaway, moved to their “dream house” in Gisborne, Victoria, from Ballarat. The couple had access to CCTV when they moved in, and were stunned when they discovered Adrian’s alleged actions.
“We were just like, what the hell? Why has he done this?” Andrea said to the Herald Sun. The couple said they believed that the items in Sharon and Ankur’s house would stay in the “life-changing” prize.
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Adrian doesn’t have sympathy for the couple, and told the publication that the fine print on the giveaway said that the house was “fully furnished” and he hadn’t done anything wrong.
“The house came fully furnished, can you imagine winning a $4.5 million house? We even paid the stamp duty, which would’ve been about $300,000. And then they say unless you give us $100,000 we will put up a website,” he said.
“It’s incredible. People are ungrateful.”
The Block 2023’s auction could be a ‘disaster’.
Nobody is safe from the cozzie livs or housing crisis, not even The Block producers.
Last year’s auction was a mixed bag, with Omar and Oz walking away with the biggest profit yet (almost $1.6 million), but Tom and Sarah-Jane earned just $20,000. Three houses got passed in, and there are rumours that Dylan and Jenny eventually sold their house for less than reserve, so zero dollars earned for the unlucky couple.
While all contestants know there’s a risk of coming out with nothing, it’s hard to watch when you see your fave couple get crushed on live TV.
Leah isn’t getting along with everyone on The Block. Photo credit: Channel 9, The Block
Sadly, we might see more devo couples again this year, with the current houses being listed for less than what they were purchased for. Yep, before all the snazzy renovations and spon-con from Channel 9’s major sponsors.
The producers paid a total of $14.3 million last year for the five Hampton East homes in Victoria, with the cheapest being $2.3 million, and the most expensive one costing $3.5 million. However, the agent price guides for the homes sit between $2.2 million to $2.85 million. Yikes.
Frank Valentic, director of Advantage Property and regular The Block bidder has warned that this year’s auction could be “an absolute disaster for the contestants”.
The couples are now courting buyers for the finished houses. Photo credit: Domain.com.au
He told Realestate.com.au that the auction reserves “are typically set around the top end of the price guides” – but could be higher, so that producers can “recoup some of the costs”.
“Based on the previous shows, and I’ve bid on around 60 Block properties, the reserves would usually be at that $2.7 million to $2.8 million range given that’s the highest end of the price guides. If it’s around there, then the contestants might come out with some money.”
“If the reserves are over $3 million I think it will be an absolute disaster for the contestants.”
He added that sales over $3 million are unlikely in the suburb, with only two houses reaching those heights over the past two years.
“I’d be very nervous if I was the contestants going to this auction,” he said.
Tom Calleja makes a return to The Block.
We were all disappointed last year when Tom and Sarah-Jane Calleja walked away with just $20,000.99 in profit. The fan faves were still optimistic, but after missing out on their regular income during the show’s filming, and paying for their daughter’s daycare, Tom had to part with his $80,000 Ford Ranger to cushion the financial blow.
But we’ve got exciting news for Tom fans! The tradie was spotted on Charming Street in April by a local, who shared the snaps to their Facebook page 2023 Charming St “The Block”. The plumber’s visit may have been connected to tradie website hipages, and he was seen posing for The Block’s photographer.
“Got to see Tom having photos being taken of him outside our place for promos,” the person wrote on Facebook. “The lady arrived late and may be the hipages publicist [or] marketing person? The other tall fellow is the photographer for The Block.”
Fingers crossed Tom makes an appearance on our screens this year, we’d love to see him as a guest judge or mentor.
Former contestant Tom Calleja has returned to The Block. Photo credit: Facebook/2023 Charming St ‘The Block
What happened to The Block’s McCafe?
As we all know, The Block is filled with sponsored products. It looks like McDonald’s is returning as a sponsor for another season, and to do something nice for the locals and tradies, a makeshift McCafe was set up across the street from The Block providing free coffees.
However, it just takes one complaint to cause chaos, and this is why we can’t have nice things. According to Daily Mail, a local complained to Bayside Council because the right permits weren’t in place. Yep, you can imagine just how well that went down with their neighbours.
“Someone has ruined it for us all. That’s a real shame,” one person told the publication. “It was a great meeting point to not only catch up with the other neighbours, but to talk to the workers and find out what was happening with The Block,” another agreed.
All The Block parking disputes.
Producers have been involved in a number of parking issues this year, because let’s face it, having builders invade your neighbourhood isn’t fun, let alone when an entire TV crew appears on your street.
A leaked letter reportedly from Channel 9 revealed that during filming of their first promo, shot in March, producers asked the neighbourhood to keep their vehicles off the street. If that wasn’t bad enough, certain houses were asked to also keep their driveways clear. One local shared their disbelief on the 2023 Charming St “The Block” Facebook group, saying: “We requested to put our cars further up the driveway as this request was a bit much for us…unfortunately they didn’t consider the potential impact of people’s possible reactions.”
This letter was sent to local residents earlier this year. Photo credit: Facebook/2023 Charming St ‘The Block
Following this, an annoyed neighbour claimed that producers were intimidating locals during filming. “The Channel Nine producers handling of it has been nothing short of a joke,” they told Daily Mail. “[When] I came home from work I was approached by three men demanding me to move my car from out the front of my house (my legal right)…they literally give you death stares for parking on the street and can be quite intimidating.”
In May, the local who runs the 2023 Charming St “The Block” Facebook page claimed that one of the stars committed an “illegal” parking act. Sharing a snap of the incident, they wrote: “This is moments after I had a go at The Block guys because a certain star had parked his car illegally again in the no standing zone, and because there was a car parked on our side of the street it was impossible for me to get in the driveway.”
Phew, the drama truly never ends.
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The Block’s producers go into damage control mode.
Is it really a surprise that after everything that’s gone down, producers decided to butter up the locals? Executive producer Julian Cress sent a nice bottle of wine with a letter to residents in the area, warning the neighbourhood that June was going to get busy.
Of course, he ended the letter by trying to make the locals feel important, saying: “We have felt very welcomed by all of you and we feel blessed to have chosen a street with such great neighbours to produce our show.”
We’ve done some sleuthing, and based on when construction started, plus sightings of real estate agents visiting The Block in May, open homes will likely take place in June.
The Block doesn’t have an official air date yet, but the houses look close to completion. Last year’s season started airing in August, so it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to guess that it’ll hit our screens around the same time this year.
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Image Credits: Facebook/2023 Charming St ‘The Block, Channel 9, The Block, Instagram/@adrian_portelli