Jenny Field, 77, had her £420,000 bungalow seized and was ordered to cover an estimated £113,000 in legal fees after she lost the legal tussle over a fence between two properties
A pensioner has been evicted from her home after she lost a lengthy legal battle with a neighbour over a 1ft strip of land.
Jenny Field, 77, had her £420,000 bungalow seized after she lost and boundary dispute that spent five years going through the courts for five years. The bungalow in Poole, Dorset, is expected to be sold in a bid to cover the estimated £113,000 in legal fees that she owes 64-year-old Pauline Clark, her neighbour.
A county court judge ended up ruling in favour of Mrs Clark following the lengthy row over a party fence that was in between the two properties. Ms Field reportedly refused to answer the door when court bailiffs arrived at the bungalow at around 11am today.
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She then reportedly told the bailiffs to leave before a locksmith used an electric saw to remove a lock, allowing entry into the property. Ms Field then stepped out in her slippers in a bid to explain her case before being refused re-entry.
Ms Clark did not want to comment further about what happened, although her son-in-law Matthew Corbin watched on from the garden of the neighbouring property. He told MailOnline: “My mother-in-law has very mixed emotions today.
“There is relief but she doesn’t know what will happen next. It’s not nice to see someone get evicted and we wish it didn’t come to this.”
Ms Clark took her client to court, with Ms Field being told to cover the costs of removing the fence and baying two-thirds of Ms Clark legal fees that amounted to about £21,000. Ms Field had previously claimed Ms Clark moved the fence 12ins onto her land and fired contractors to have it taken down before repositioning onto what she declared was her land.
Ms Field, who purchased the bungalow in 2016, added: “They’ve changed the locks and won’t let me back in. How can I be evicted for something I haven’t done?
“I have got nowhere else to go. This is my home and my property. I have had five years of this rubbish. I am really upset by the whole thing. I have been put through hell by that b**** next door.”
Ms Clark’s solicitor Anna Curtis previously commented: “She believes she is not liable for these debts. There has been no discussion or offer of settlement, no suggestion of refinancing or obtaining equity on the property. There has been no proper response in relation to the claim.”
In his passing judgement at Bournemouth County Court in September last year, Judge Fentem said: “This is a very long-running boundary dispute. The defendant (Ms Field) has, in various ways, sought to relitigate the original case.
“Her case is fundamentally that…the original fence was a boundary fence and that it was entirely on her land. Every attempt to relitigate has failed. She appears to be convinced some form of fraud has taken place. There appears to be no reasoned basis for the allegation.
“There is no evidence in the documentation any wrongdoing was committed. I have no confidence at all the claimant (Mrs Clark) will be paid what she is owed except by an order for sale.
“This matter needs resolution, the parties need to find a way of putting the entirety of this dispute behind them. The order for sale is a last resort and Draconian remedy but taking all the factors into account I should make an order for sale in this case.”
