A NORFOLK couple has spent their life savings and even faced jail time in a dispute with their late neighbour over a wooden fence.
Graham and Katherine Bateson, 75 and 73, have spent £45,000 on legal fees attempting to remove a boundary put up by their neighbour, Wendy Leedham.
To their dismay, Leedham, who died at age 74, had obtained planning permission to erect the fence at the end o their bungalow, despite the couple being told it was a shared driveway.
Retired factory supervisor Mrs Bateson told the Eastern Daily Press: “We’d lived here 32 years without any problems with the previous neighbours, they all agreed it was a shared driveway.
“To have all your life savings taken away like that, when you knew you were right in the first place.”
The couple bought their two-bedroom house in Snettisham back in 1987 but, unbeknownst to them, their serene cul-de-sac would turn into a bitter legal battleground.
The fence was put up in 2019 and, according to the Bateson family, obstructed the driveway making it difficult to enter the Brent Avenue property.
They then embarked on a lengthy legal campaign to tackle what they claim should have been a ‘featureless boundary.’
The extensive struggle included filing an injunction, which was followed by three years of litigation, and eventually a mediation hearing in 2021.
To their horror, at the hearing it was decided that the fence could stay.
Mrs Bateson added: “I don’t understand how you can have all the checks done legally and 30 years later it comes back and bites you on the bum.”
In September 2022, three years and £45,000 later, a fed up Mr Bateson removed the fence himself, ignoring the new ruling.
The disbelieved retired window cleaner said: “I took the fence down and I got arrested for criminal damage.
“They had me locked up for 12 hours on a Sunday with no food until midnight.”
The charge was dropped last December as Crown Prosecution Service deemed it was not in the public interest to proceed.
At this point the Bateson’s declared they could not afford to continue their costly conflict with Wendy Leedham and her fence.
Since the arrest, the wooden barrier has not been rebuilt – but Mr and Mrs Bateson have already lost their life savings.
He said: “We saved and worked hard.
“It’s all gone now.”
Leedham died a few months before the hearing in May 2021 but her family have stepped in to attempt to keep the fence she fought so hard to maintain.
Her three-bed home is up for sale for £375,000 with estate agent Sowerby’s making no mention of the boundary dispute within the property’s 12-page brochure.
Since the hearing, a surveyor’s report has confirmed that the fence should never have been put up, according to the Bateson’s.
The Land Registry however rejected this as they were not happy with the way the Bateson’s signatures were witnessed.
The properties are currently fenceless, but Mrs Bateson says she and her husband are terrified of what kind of altercations the new homeowners next door might bring.
She said: “We’re still living in fear they will put another fence up when there shouldn’t have been one in the first place.”
As the person who put up the fence gained legal permission before putting the fence up, legal permission must be granted in order to take it down.
Residents using the driveway signed up to agreements which specified that they must adhere to what has been permitted by the court of law.
As both sets of neighbours disagree, it is up to a third party authority to make a decision on whether the fence should remain up or be removed.
