A pensioner evicted from her £420,000 bungalow after a court battle with her neighbour over a 12inch strip of land has been dealt a ‘final insult’ after discovering she is still legally required to pay £163 a month in council tax on it.
Jenny Field lost her three-bedroom detached property in a smart cul-de-sac in Hamworthy, Poole, Dorset, after she failed to pay neighbour Pauline Clark’s £113,000 legal bill.
A county court judge issued a repossession order that gave Mrs Clark, 64, the authority to sell her neighbour’s property.
Once the sale goes through she will receive what she is due and Ms Field, 77, will get the remainder.
Despite being unable to enter her home as the locks have been changed, Ms Field said she has been informed by BCP Council that she must pay them £163 a month in council tax as she still owns the freehold for it.
She said: ‘I phoned BCP Council and they said unless my freehold has been sold I am still responsible for council tax as nobody has bought my freehold from me as the legal freeholder.
‘I feel bullied and harassed. This is another insult to me losing my home.’
From April, Ms Field must pay £163.70 and then £162.00 over a period of 10 months.
Jenny Field, 77, was forced to live in a hostel after bailiffs evicted her from her £420,000 bungalow after a court battle with neighbour Pauline Clark
Even though she is locked out of her own property, Ms Field has been told by BCP Council that her £163 monthly tax bill stands because she remains the legal freeholder
Her bungalow has been put up for sale for what Ms Field says is a knocked-down price of £325,000, which is far less than she expected for it.
She said a sale at that price would not leave her with enough money to find a new home.
The row between Ms Field and Mrs Clark centred on a boundary fence between their two properties.
Mrs Clark had it built in 2020 but afterwards her neighbour claimed it had been positioned 12 inches onto her land and had contractors take it down and move it back.
The matter ended up in court, with Ms Field losing.
Initially, Ms Field’s legal bill was about £21,000 but it escalated to the six-figure sum when she repeatedly challenged the ruling and failed.
She was given three months or to pay the money, otherwise her home would be repossessed and sold from under her.
In December Ms Field made one last attempt to have the ruling overturned by claiming her neighbour’s case had been fraudulent, which the judge described as ‘totally without merit’.
Judge Ross Fentem said the ‘draconian order’ to repossess her house was a last resort, but that Ms Field had had every opportunity to pay.
Mrs Clark’s solicitor Anna Curtis said there was ample equity in Ms Field’s property for her to pay the debt.
She also added that the pensioner would still be able to buy a comfortable retirement property mortgage-free and have cash leftover.
Passing his judgement at Bournemouth County Court last September, 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.
Bailiffs went in on January 26, repossessing the home and forcing Ms Field to leave with only a few bags of belongings and her mobile phone
Mrs Clark erected a boundary fence between their homes, which her pensioner neighbours claimed was moved 12 inches onto 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.’
On January 26, bailiffs turned up in the usually peaceful Dean Close and evicted Ms Field, forcing Ms Field to leave with only a few bags of belongings and her mobile phone.
Lawyers acting on behalf of her neighbour gave Ms Field until mid-February to empty her belongings and furniture, or they would be dumped.
After being made homeless Ms Field initially stayed in a nearby hostel but is now living in a friend’s flat while her belongings are in a garage.
The pensioner previously claimed her former neighbour was ‘jealous’ before revealing her children had urged her to move out of the ‘toxic’ area.
‘I should have taken the chance to move out ages ago, but I stayed in the area and modernised my property. I made it really nice,’ she said.
‘I want to move right out of the area completely. My children have told me to get out of the area as it’s toxic.’
BCP Council have been contacted for comment.
