As the biggest and most expensive The Block ever, host Scott Cam knew his treechange in country Victoria would challenge the contestants like never before.
Not only do the teams have to deliver massive spaces each week, they have to somehow do it within the budget and with cash to spare so they can build up a bank for the huge task of landscaping their four-hectare blocks.
It’s been something Scott has tried to get everyone to take seriously with a string of not-so-subtle reminders.
“I kept telling the teams they needed to watch their budgets, but it just got away from them.”
(Image: Nine)For most, it’s been a tough but manageable task. But when The Block’s accountants point out that one team – Ankur and Sharon in House Three – have managed to blow their budget and land themselves more than $50,000 in debt, he’s had enough.
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“I kept telling the teams they needed to watch their budgets, but it just got away from them,” Scott, 59, tells TV WEEK. “It was obvious that I had to step in.”
He decides the solution is to revisit something he first had to do at The Block Oslo in 2019 with Luke and Tess (who eventually went on to win): he appoints a finance expert to oversee House Three’s invoicing.
Scott tells Ankur and Sharon that, from now on, they can’t hire trades or make purchases without his approval.
(Image: Nine)He tells a shattered Ankur and Sharon that, from now on, they can’t hire trades or make purchases without his approval.
Scott admits it’s a tough decision, but insists it’s to help them.
“It’s my job to make sure people get to the end and attempt to have a successful auction so they can make money!” he says.
“They targeted us!” Omar and Oz’s finances are audited – but they get the last laugh
After weeks of watching Omar and Oz breeze through their build, the other Blockheads were sure something dodgy was going on in House Five.
While others struggled, they seemed to coast along, smiling through every obstacle.
Convinced they must be underpaying their team so as to throw more trades at the job, the contestants – prompted by visiting All-star Ronnie and led by House One’s Tom and Sarah-Jane – called for their finances to be audited.
But when the audit comes back this week, not only does it clear Omar and Oz, but – to their delight – the only issue Scott’s finance team can uncover relates to House One!
But when the audit comes back this week, it clears Omar and Oz.
(Image: Nine)“We can only think the others were threatened by us because we were doing so well,” Omar, 30, tells TV WEEK. “We felt they were trying to target us.
“But the audit cleared us – which we knew it would – and the finger-pointing Sarah-Jane had to pay back money she’d used to buy cigarettes!”
However, Sarah-Jane, 31, says it was all just a misunderstanding and not the big deal it’s been made out to be.
“I went to the shops and left my wallet at home, so I used the The Block card,” she explains. “I told Finance I’d reimburse them and they said, ‘No problems.’ And that was it!”
