A man who illegally demolished his half of a semi-detached home has insisted he is not a ‘neighbour from hell’ despite allegedly leaving the property’s other side unsellable.
Chris Rhodes, 47, defended his decision to pull down his side of the building after his former neighbour Shivarna Mitra, 44, claimed she was subjected to a four-year-long ‘nightmare’ following its demolition.
Ms Mitra, who still lives at the home in Pudsey, Leeds, along with her infant son and elderly mother, said her side has been left with damp and mould, and her electrics were damaged after Mr Rhodes, who has since left the UK, pulled down his side.
She says she is unable to fix the issues because she cannot gain access to the land next door and fears her house, which has become structurally unsafe, is unsellable.
But father-of-four Mr Rhodes has defended his choice to tear down his three-bedroom property, which he purchased in July 2022 for £280,000, and blamed Ms Mitra and the council for complicating the ‘unfortunate’ situation.
‘There were very unfortunate circumstances that cost my wife and I a significant amount of money and stress,’ he said, adding these same circumstances ‘created a bad situation of which I tried to work with all parties concerned at every point to resolve’.
‘Sadly, I cannot say the same about Shivarna,’ he added.
Shortly after purchasing the home, Mr Rhodes – who is a carpenter and currently self-employed – applied to Leeds City Council in June and August 2022 for planning permission for two extensions, both of which were approved. In October 2022, work began at the site.
Shivarna Mitra’s home pictured next to the pile of rubble and undergrowth which remains after Chris Rhodes demolished his half of their semi-detached property
Chris Rhodes pulled down his portion of the property – but he denies that the work caused damage to Ms Mitra’s home
The two homes pictured in 2020, before the building work. Ms Mitra said she saved up for years to put a deposit down on the ‘dream’ house in May 2021
But Ms Mitra claimed Mr Rhodes used the planning applications to illegally demolish the house – something which he denies.
She called Leeds City Council in January 2023, claiming her neighbour’s work was in breach of planning consents. Ms Mitra claims the authority asked him to stop, which Mr Rhodes disputed.
Mr Rhodes instead said he was ‘ignored’ and felt as though he was being ‘punished’ by the council’s planning team when trying to apply for permission to build his home.
He also claimed a local councillor posted ‘negative posts about the property without any attempt to gain the facts of what was happening’ and said Ms Mitra would openly comment on the posts saying she ‘would do everything she could to stop us building the house’. Ms Mitra denies this.
Despite demolishing his home, Mr Rhodes never built a new house and instead sold the land with planning permission to two new owners earlier this year for £115,000.
He said he sold the plot because he ‘did not want my wife and children exposed to all the nastiness’ and alleged Ms Mitra was ‘trying to stop us building at every possible point’.
Mr Rhodes also pushed back on Ms Mitra’s claim that he was ‘aggressive’ toward her after she reportedly told him not to knock down his house.
He said: ‘This did not happen and I was in no way, shape or form, aggressive with her.
‘In fact I did not see her when I visited the site to see the dangerous wall. She was abusive and aggressive towards the builders and I made a point of telling them to please ignore her.’ Ms Mitra denies any aggression towards the builders.
Mr Rhodes also said Ms Mitra made it difficult for him to complete work and claimed she called the fire brigade to report non-existent fires at the property.
‘It is my opinion that she doesn’t have a firm grasp of reality and doesn’t understand everything that people have tried to explain to her,’ he said.
Ms Mitra purchased her home in May 2021 after saving up for years to put a deposit down. She subsequently spent £80,000 on renovations in the months afterwards, including on a new kitchen and a £35,000 garden with astroturf.
Ms Mitra says she saved up for years for her three-bedroom house in Pudsey, Leeds, only for her neighbour’s building works to leave it ‘unsellable’
The neighbour was only served a stop notice months after he started the project – when it was ‘too little too late’, according to Ms Mitra
She said: ‘It was perfect for my family. It had a big garden for my son to play in and enough living space for him to grow up and for us to live comfortably.’
The mother recalls she did not worry too much when work began in 2022 to Mr Rhodes’s home as ‘she didn’t know much about construction or building practices’.
By December, however, she said things had changed after Mr Rhodes removed his property’s roof, which she said left gaping holes and exposed her to the cold weather.
Mr Rhodes says due to a storm ‘the gable wall became unsafe’ and then ‘following HSE [the Health and Safety Executive] guidance’ and ‘to avoid any risk or danger to others and their properties’, he pulled down the wall as well as a further front wall.
But Ms Mitra argued that had the council ordered him to stop at this point, instead of in May 2023, the situation would have been salvageable.
She said: ‘He had pulled down his side of the party wall and the breeze blocks meaning I only had a layer of bricks protecting my house from the outside.
‘From the foundations, first floor, second floor, and up to the roof I am now exposed.’
Ms Mitra’s property has now been left with holes in its walls and roof, which has led to rats chewing through electrical wires as well as squirrels and wasps coming in.
Damp and mould also spread across the home, while the electrics, carpet and wallpaper have been damaged after rainwater seeped in.
Mr Rhodes did acknowledge that during the works, the gable wall between the two homes ‘became unsafe’ but he immediately tried to make it safe at a ‘great cost’.
He said: ‘I had a discussion with the HSE and it was agreed [that pulling the wall down] was necessary and the correct course of action to avoid any risk or danger to others and their properties.
‘We [the builder] immediately took the wall down to make it safe, and the front wall had to come down also.’
Walls in parts of Ms Mitra’s home that were recently renovated are covered in damp and mould
The mother’s side has been left with holes in its walls and roof, which she says have allowed in rats – who chewed through electric wires – as well as squirrels and wasps
Ms Mitra’s attic has holes, while rain water has seeped in and electrics have been damaged
In May 2023, Leeds City Council handed him an official stop order which he says he ‘fully complied with’.
He added: ‘I had a meeting with the planning enforcement officer and he notified us that we should have submitted an application to demolish to the council.
‘This goes against what the Health and Safety Executive said and I had an obligation, both legally and morally to immediately make things safe.
‘I accepted that there would be planning ramifications at this point but the number one priority is safety.’
Mr Rhodes said that, after the house was demolished, he was told he would need to put in an application for a new-build house because he had gone ‘beyond the percentage threshold for refurbishment’.
He claims he asked the council planning enforcement officer on how best to proceed but said he was ‘unwilling to help’ so he was forced to appoint his own officer.
On advice, he submitted an initial pre-application to the council and then an official application after amending it following advice from the planning department to fit modern regulations.
But Mr Rhodes claims he was ‘ignored’ by Leeds City Council and after approximately five months of waiting, he started emailing and calling to see what was happening.
He said: ‘I received zero response from my many answer machine messages and emails.
‘After approximately nine months waiting we were issued a notice that squirrels were getting in the gaps in the roof, which were existing but obviously covered by the house.
‘I arranged for a builder to cover these immediately, and he did and the notice was satisfied.
‘Shortly after this we received notice that our planning application had been denied.
‘At this point my planning officer, believing the council were trying to punish us, recommended contacting the Home Office to hold the council accountable.
‘And also remove any unfair bias from the decision on our application.
‘With a week of this action, the head of planning at the council contacted us asking for us “to be sensible and communicate with them to resolve the matter”.
‘This was frustrating as we had been ignored for so long but we immediately took them up on the offer and made further changes to the design in line with more recommendations, and after a number of months we finally received the second planning permission.’
Mr Rhodes received planning consent for his second application – another five-bedroom house – in May 2024.
He said he couldn’t understand why ‘if it was such a problem there being no house built’, Ms Mitra ‘would be so vehemently opposing the rectification of the problem’.
He said he did not let Ms Mitra on to his land so she could put up protective sheets because it breached HSE and council guidance he was given.
Mr Rhodes denies that builders caused structural damage to the house, including her having to pull up her back garden decking, or that they left holes in her loft walls and the side of her house.
He said: ‘There are four courses of brick [two each side] with cavities, so while there were holes on the first of four courses [which we filled], at no point was the actual external wall of her property exposed.
‘We did not touch her roof as is shown in the videos and images. We left approximately two feet of our roof so as to protect the top of the wall from direct weather.’
Ms Mitra was approached for further comment.
A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said: ‘The council is aware of the demolition of a property at this site following structural instability that arose during construction works.
‘The building was subsequently taken down by the owner without the necessary Council permissions being in place. The owner was advised by Leeds City Council to submit a Section 80 Demolition Notice but did not do so.
‘Following the unauthorised demolition, officers from the council’s Building Control team attended the site to assess the remaining structure and any potential impact on the adjoining semi-detached property.
‘Their assessment concluded that the neighbouring property remained structurally stable and that no additional shoring was required. Officers also recommended measures to make the exposed party wall weatherproof and provided this advice to the owner.
‘As these are privately owned properties, the council advised Ms Mitra to contact her house insurer and take legal advice. The council will continue to monitor the site and take any appropriate action as necessary.’
A HSE spokesperson said: ‘HSE visited the site when the property had been demolished.
‘HSE provided verbal advice in relation to scaffolding and site security. At the time of the HSE interactions there were no breaches of health and safety legislation that required formal enforcement.’
