The Block 2022: Scott Cam on taking over Ankur and Sharon's budget after they went $53k in the red

For the first time in four years on The Block, Scott Cam has taken over a team’s finances after Ankur and Sharon went $53,000 in the red.

The host informed the couple they were cut off and their Block credit cards had been cancelled during one of his weekly walk-around chats with co-host Shelley Craft.

While such drastic action may have taken the Melbourne team by surprise, Scotty has been telling contestants to be careful with the budget since they arrived on site in Gisborne.

“It’s an unusual situation because I warned all of them [about the budget] right from the very start,” he told 9Entertainment.

“The unfortunate thing is that Ankur and Sharon, I don’t think they listened to that at all. I said to them, ‘The budget is the most important thing on this show, if you run out of money then you can’t keep going’.”

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Though Scotty predicted “it’s not going to be pretty” when he informed the pair, he was resolved to deliver the news as soon as possible given the number of warnings teams have had.

“It’s a bit of a kick in the face to me, I’ve asked them and I’ve told them and I’ve said, ‘You’ve got to watch your money’. We’ve had meeting after meeting up there, going ‘I’m really worried about your budget’ and they just even take that into consideration obviously because they kept going,” he said.

Ankur and Sharon explained their big expenses have been on trades, but after looking at all teams’ invoices Scotty could see they have higher bills for work done on the same space.

In order to stay within the budget teams need to be making a record of the quotes they get from their trades, so they know how much money to set aside for when the invoice comes in. But according to Scotty, it’s not just about keeping track of costs, it’s also about trying to get the best quote possible.

“You’ve got to see what your tradesmen are charging you and whether they’re charging you fairly, you’ve got to work out quotes to get cheaper ones to get estimates and all sorts of things, as you would any business that you run,” he said.

Scotty explained that when a team is cut off from their Block finances it means he doesn’t release the money for the next room they’re renovating into their accounts. This means the money from future room budgets can be put towards paying off their budget blow-out.

Ankur and Sharon also have to have their plans for their future rooms approved by Scotty, who will knock back ideas if he doesn’t think the expense is within reason.

“We’re hoping they’re not going to keep spending, but if they do well then we’ll have to cut the trades off and take more measures because I can’t tell them more times than I’ve told them to curb your spending,” he said.

At this stage no other team is at risk of having their budget taken over, but all budgets are tight heading into the final weeks of The Block. And one team in particular is managing their budget so well, Scott said it’s proof the biggest properties ever featured on the show can be renovated on the budget given.

“It’ll be a tight run to the finish, you’d need to win a few bob to get there but some of them are looking good with lots of money. Dylan and Jenny have been really good with their budget, they’ve spent the exact amount of money they’re supposed to spend and they’ve managed it really well – my point to that is, it can be done,” he said.

And if Ankur and Sharon need any inspiration to help them keep renovating rooms without any money coming in, they only have to look at Tess and Luke’s journey from the 2019 season.

The Queensland couple had their Block finances cut off by Scotty when their budget blew out while renovating House 2 at The Oslo.

Despite that, their house ended up selling for $3,620,000 at auction, making them a profit of $630,000.

That ended up being the highest profit on the day which meant Tess and Luke won The Block that year and took home an extra $100,000 in prize money.

This article was originally published by Nine.com.au. Reproduced with permission.