The dilapidated unsafe house of the notorious Mole Man tunneller is up for sale, with offers over �500,000 invited.

Mr Andrew Fraser has been trying for the past year to develop the site in De Beauvoir’s Mortimer Road- but has now stuck the house on the market with estate agent Douglas Allen.

Eccentric oddball Mr Lyttle gained worldwide fame after he spent 40 years digging a 60-foot network of tunnels beneath the house that was worth �1 million, before he died last June.

Mr Fraser – who claims to be acting as administrator for Mr Lyttle’s heirs – is believed to want to raise at least �700,000 from the sale.

Hackney Council is owed around �400,000 for saving the structurally unsound building from collapse by footing the bill for scaffolding.

Mr Fraser made two planning applications over the last year to demolish the house.

He initially wanted to build a block of eight flats but when that was rejected by council planners, he submitted another application to build a pair of four-storey houses - again rejected.

An estate agent from Douglas Allen told the Gazette today that it was not possible to look around the site.

“The council filled in the holes, but we can’t get in there because it’s too dangerous,” he said.

“There are about 28 enforcement notices on it because the council deems it dangerous, it’s a messy thing,” he added.

Mr Fraser, whose company Fraser and Fraser featured on TV show Heirhunters, lodged an appeal in August against planners’ refusal to allow demolition of the house, which is still being processed.

Permission is not normally needed to demolish a building, but the conservation area is subject to an article 4 direction, meaning any alteration to a building must be approved by the council beforehand.

Council officers said the demolition “would result in the loss of a building of local townscape merit, which is a heritage asset and makes a positive contribution to the special historic character of the De Beauvoir Conservation Area.”

Mr Fraser was unavailable for comment today.

To view the estate agent’s listing see http://www.douglasallen.co.uk/searchresults/property-details.asp?PropertyID=51209607&searchGUID=2011929123217