Block teams battle over budget woes with two weeks to go

With two weeks left on The Block, stress levels are at an all-time high, culminating in a nasty clash on site.

The Block teams unleash fury over budget. Picture: Channel 9.

Tensions have boiled over on The Block over Sharon and Ankur’s supposed “budget cut” as the teams grapple with dwindling funds two weeks towards the end.

With $25,000 to play with this week, sheds to complete and trades to pay, stress levels are high, with Jenny of House 4 and Rachel of House 2 taking aim at Sharon and Ankur and Oz and Omar.

Ultimately, a tense body corporate sees all five teams turn on foreman Keith as they question how they’re supposed to present a room with such tight purse strings.

The teams have begun to turn on each other with just two weeks left.

During house walk-throughs, the teams were struck by what Sharon and Ankur managed to do in their redo room, having installed an enormous mirror despite being “cut off” from spending by The Block host Scott Cam.

“This is where I’m also confused, right. There’s no money, there’s apparently absolutely no money, so where’s that mirror from?,” Rachel said on viewing their living room.

Elsewhere, she added to producers: “What really set me off was walking into house three who apparently have gone so far over budget and seeing things that I know have cost money … So all you can think is, why should we stick to one rule, when there seems to be other rules happening in other houses.”

Jenny echoed: ““I thought once you get cut off, you get your card taken and you actually get cut off, you can’t really finish. I don’t want them to not finish, but I think if fair’s fair, we could have gone and spent, I dunno, 50, 80,000, whatever they spent, and then still presented rooms like they did.”

The tradie couple have been doing most of the work themselves.

Jenny was particularly peeved given she and fiance Dylan, who are both tradies, have been doing so much of the work themselves.

“I’m just confused that everyone’s doing things with no budget,” she said while confronting Sharon and Ankur over their arrangement, which sees Scotty docking their monthly budget each week to pay back their $53,000 debt.

Sharon and Ankur were rattled by the friction, reminding the others of Oz and Omar’s extravagant listing, in which they’ve promised a helicopter pad and tennis court which are yet to be completed.

Turning on the boys, Jenny admitted she was “fired up” by the information.

“Oi, how are you guys affording everything you're doing?,” she asked.

The huge new mirror in Sharon and Ankur’s house had Rachel in a tizz.

Jenny was clearly frustrated by the dramas over budget, airing her grievances with Omar and Oz.

“I’m just pissed off that we can’t f***ing do anything,” she fumed.

“We’ve been working, labouring every day, trying to get ahead of the budget, and I just don’t know how everyone else is doing it.”

“We work as hard as you guys do,” Oz responding, to which Jenny disagreed.

“No but you don’t though, I feel like you guys are always out driving around.”

Taken aback, Oz hit back: “You don’t see it … Are you at our house every single day?

“Every single piece of demo that’s happened at our house, Oz and I have done it,” Omar weighed in.

“We don’t need to do much during the day when our chippies are doing it.”

“Dyl and I have done a lot of the chippy work, and we’re still in the red heaps,” Jenny argued as it became apparent that all five teams are effectively in debt.

“We’re still in the red as well, everyone’s in the red,” Omar revealed, with Oz chiming in that they have “a bigger sacrifice given they will need to split their winnings.

“You guys need to understand that me and Omar are sacrificing more than you guys. You guys don’t split the money, we split the money. I take half to my family he takes half to his family.”

Omar and Oz vented their frustrations at a body corporate meeting.

Laughing about how quickly things escalated, Jenny joked: “I feel like there’s going to be an all-in brawl in a minute. We’re all like a bunch of hyenas.

“I feel like I’m going to headbutt somebody,” she laughed to producers.

Taking their money woes to a body corporate meeting, the contestants’ concerns fell on deaf ears, with foreman Keith standing firm on the budget of $25,000 for the week.

“Maybe you’re just being too exorbitant with your designs,” he said as the teams shook their heads and moaned that the meeting was a waste of time.

As the end draws near, all five properties are still in need of landscaping, with questions hovering over whether any will be able to afford to finish.

The Block continues Tuesday night from 7.30 on Channel 9