Neighbours in a picturesque village have been locked in a bitter court battle over who owns a boundary wall and a ‘one inch’ strip of land.
Darren and Debbie White, of Chelmsford, Essex, have been accused of intimidation, trespassing and harassment since they demolished the wall separating their property and the Alder family’s next door in 2016 to make room for a garden home for their son.
In return, the White family claims they received death threats from locals and are drowning in debt after losing the messy court fight – having forked out more than £100,000 in legal fees.
Speaking to MailOnline, Mrs White said: ‘I go to bed every night and I don’t want to wake up.
‘I’ve just been signed off work for two weeks with severe stress. I’m on the maximum amount of anti-depressants; I keep getting the shakes.’
The Whites had been under the belief they owned the wall since purchasing Willow Cottage in 2005 – coincidentally within days of the Alders buying The Old Stores next door.
They knocked it down, claiming it was wonky, building back a ‘straight’ building wall which was said to stick out further by around one inch.
However, unknown to the Whites, the previous owners of the two cottages created a new boundary agreement in 2005, stating the physical boundary features belonged to the owner of The Old Stores.
As a result, the Alders claimed they owned the wall, and that the Whites had damaged their property and built on their land.
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Debbie White shows the wall of her outhouse which was said to be trespassing by around an inch onto next door’s land. In its place used to be a boundary wall belonging to the Alder family
Mrs White stands outside her house Willow Cottage in Chelmsford, Essex, which she says she will have to sell after a costly court battle. The Old Stores cottage is to the left
The red circle shows how it all started. Mrs White said the original wall was wonky and when they knocked it down and built the outhouse straight, it was said to stick out further by the thickness of around one inch
The beige wall of the outbuilding on the Whites’ side – in the centre of the picture – is an inch too far onto the Alders’ land. The red line shows the full boundary between the properties
They took legal action against Mr and Mrs White in September 2020, claiming trespass, seeking damages and demanding declarations regarding ownership of the boundary.
This month, the Court of Appeal upheld its decision that a boundary agreement, made between previous owners on behalf of the current owners, binds them without their knowledge of the agreement.
Mrs White said she will be forced to sell the house after coughing up more than £100,000 in legal costs – still owing tens of thousands in damages to the Alders. Mr White is in hospital with Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS).
‘Why completely destroy people? Why?’, she said.
The County Court in 2022 and circuit judge on appeal in 2023 found the boundary agreement created by the previous owners was valid and binding on the current owners of the houses.
Mrs White claimed she and her husband truly believed they owned the wall, and received planning permission to build the outhouse in 2012.
But after knocking it down and building the shell of the garden home, the mother-of-two said they discovered a new agreement had been put in place by the old owners around the time her husband bought the house in 2005.
‘I’m none the wiser, I’ve seen the plans, I’ve seen the approvals, I’ve seen everything, here we go,’ she said of going ahead with the work in 2016.
Mr and Mrs White’s wedding photo. They have married each other twice; this photo shows their second wedding
Marks on the neighbour’s wall possibly suggest a few more inches have been taken from Mrs White’s side
Mrs White claimed the boundary wall was crumbling and structurally unsafe, hence why she and her husband knocked it down.
‘I said the walls are going to have to come down – they’re so unsafe,’ she claimed.
‘She [Mrs Alder] said “It’s our wall” and I said “it’s our wall” because on my husband’s purchase report it’s his boundary.
‘In the end they agreed we could take the walls down […].
‘I agreed the walls would go back up and would not go back up without their input into the build of the wall, the colour, this that and the other.’
However, after the walls were demolished, Mrs White claimed the Alder family accused her and her husband of bullying and brought out the boundary agreement made in 2005.
‘I was devastated, because we didn’t actually know what had been going on – we didn’t have a clue,’ she said.
‘If she had come and said to me, “you’re clearing your garden, there’s a boundary agreement, you can’t touch those walls, you can’t do this, you can’t do that”.
Mrs White shows the measurements which led to the bitter court battle with her neighbour
Debbie White shows the wall which is said to be trespassing by around an inch
‘She didn’t mention it until after the building was up. I shot straight in and told [my husband] there’s a boundary agreement. They own them walls [sic].
‘He said “no”. Then he got onto land registry and started getting the documents.’
Mrs White claimed she had an unknown young man come to her door and threaten to shoot her husband over the boundary row.
‘We had threats to our lives,’ she said.
‘You shouldn’t be threatened with murder on your doorstep.’
The Alder family declined to comment when approached by MailOnline.
