Couple loses Rs 50 lakh savings fighting with their neighbours over fence panels

Neighbours fighteverywhere in the world. But when it leads you to lose $59,623 (Rs 50 lakh), it no longer classifies as a regular tussle. A couple in Britain lost all their life savings because of a legal battle with their neighbours, all over two fence panels, Daily Mail reported.

Wendy Leedham put up the fences in 2019, dividing the shared driveway between two bungalows in 2019. Her neighbours, Graham and Katherine Bateson were not happy and wanted them to be removed since they said the properties had a "featureless boundary". It had always been that way since 1987 when they bought their home.

The two parties started a legal fight which ended three years later, with the ruling coming in favour of Wendy Leedham. However, she couldn't witness her victory as she passed away a few months before the verdict.

"We'd lived here for 32 years without any problems with the previous neighbours. They all agreed it was a shared drive," 73-years-old Katherine Bateson told Daily Mail.

"We bought it as a shared drive, that's how it was explained to us and sold to us. I don't understand how you can have all the checks done legally and 30 years later it comes back to bite you on the bum," an angry Katherine added.

The couple says that their earlier neighbours had a short run of panelling to protect their kids from running out in front of cars. However, Leedham added two low panels when she moved in in 2019.

The legal fight begins

They applied for an injunction, saying it obstructed the entrance to their driveway, but Leedham countered the claim after being told by her lawyer that she was free to put up the panels.

This started a lengthy legal battle with huge expenses that ended in 2021 with the mediation ruling calling for a new deed showing the boundary between the two bungalows. This meant that the fences could stay. However, a surveyor's report later confirmed that it is a shared driveway with an open boundary.

So Bateson removed the fences himself and was arrested for criminal damage in 2022. "They had me locked up for 12 hours on a Sunday with no food until midnight," he said.

The Batesons have now decided to end the legal fight as they have exhausted all their savings on it.

The case has finally been dropped but the Batesons fear that the fences might come back up since the property has been put up for sale for £375,000 ($496,816). The sales brochure describes the driveway spot as "a serene spot".