A retired woman faces losing her home after a disagreement over a one-foot strip of land escalated into a five-year legal nightmare, demonstrating how neighbour disputes can spiral disastrously out of control.
Jenny Field must sell her Poole bungalow to cover £113,000 in legal costs stemming from a boundary dispute with neighbour Pauline Clark that began in 2020 over the placement of a wooden fence.
From fence to financial ruin
The conflict began when Clark installed a six-foot fence on her property. Field claimed the fence encroached one foot onto her land and hired contractors to tear it down two months later.
Clark responded by launching legal action for damage, theft, and trespass. In December 2022, a court ruled in Clark’s favour, ordering Field to pay £14,000—comprising £11,800 for damage to the fence and retaining wall, plus £2,120 in legal costs.
Rather than accepting the judgement, Field launched multiple appeals attempting to overturn the decision. She even sought £500,000 in damages, alleging Clark had engaged in “sham litigation” and abused the court system.
Vexatious litigation
Field’s persistent challenges generated such enormous volumes of paperwork that District Judge Ross Fentem imposed a civil restraint order. He noted she had submitted “hundreds, if not thousands” of pages to the court in the preceding months, calling the quantity excessive and potentially vexatious.
Each failed appeal added more legal costs, causing Field’s debt to balloon from £14,000 to £113,266. When she failed to attend a recent hearing at Bournemouth County Court, Judge Fentem ordered her to settle the debt within three months or face a forced sale of her property.
A devastating outcome
Clark’s representative described requesting a sale order as a “last resort,” emphasising that Clark—who is not wealthy—had been denied payment for years while enduring enormous stress that required counselling.
Judge Fentem rejected Field’s fraud allegations as “entirely without merit,” stating he had “no confidence at all” she would pay voluntarily. He acknowledged that forcing a sale is “draconian” but necessary to finally resolve the matter.
Field, who bought her three-bedroom bungalow for £270,000 in 2016, now expects to sell it for around £600,000. Though this would leave her with substantial equity after paying her debts, she expressed frustration: “I am selling it because I have to and I am fed up with living here.”
Lessons Learned
Boundary disputes should be settled out of the courtroom, whenever possible. Experts recommend hiring a Chartered Surveyor—a far less costly approach than litigation, which can consume life savings over inches of land. A Chartered Surveyor can act on behalf of one or both neighbours to help resolve boundary issues, with the authority to determine the legal boundary without taking to the courts.