Watch This Retired couple lose £45k life savings in court battle with neighbour over fence on shared driveway By Lucinda Herbert Reporter Comment Published 28th Aug 2024, 12:11 BST Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565 Visit Shots! now This video More videos A retired couple say they've spent their life savings of £45k in a bitter legal row with their former neighbour over a fence put up on their shared driveway. Video (click to play above) shows how a fence had blocked the entrance to Graham and Katherine Bateson’s drive, which they say has ended up costing them £45,000 in legal fees.
Speaking in the video, the couple sought an injunction to have it taken down, saying it obstructed the entrance to the drive of their property after it was put up in 2019 bylate neighbour Wendy Leedham. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Shared drive ‘not to be built on’ Keep up with the latest new videos with the Shots! Newsletter. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more.
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Mr and Mrs Bateson argued that when they bought their two-bedroom house for £29,500 in 1987, they were told it shared a drive with their neighbour - and they have never had a problem until recently. They said they were told there was a featureless boundary marked between the two properties which should not be built on. Read More Ex criminal gang member now helps turn youths away from knife crime after friend was stabbed to death Attempted break-in with electric saw gets foiled by police after CCTV caught burglar in the act Furious residents' anger over huge mountain of fly-tipped rubbish on 'Walking Dead' estate attracting rats But their neighbour obtained legal advice saying she could put the fence up between the properties in Snettisham, Norfolk.
Life savings gone Mrs Bateson, 73, said: "We'd lived here 32 years without any problems with the previous neighbours, they all agreed it was a shared drive. We bought it as a shared drive, that's how it was explained to us and sold to us. 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.
” "To have all your life savings taken away like that, when you knew you were right in the first place." Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mediation hearing Litigation dragged on for three years until November, 2021, when the case went to a mediation hearing. The hearing ruled a new deed should be drawn up showing the boundary between the two properties aligned with the fence, meaning it could stay.
But the shared drive and open boundary was later confirmed by a surveyor's report after the mediation hearing, the Bateson’s say. Arrested for criminal damage Retired window cleaner Mr Bateson, 75, took the law into his own hands in September, 2022. He 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." Graham Bateson, 75, and wife Katherine, 73, from Snettisham near King's Lynn have spent £43,000 in lawyers fees in a dispute over a fence a with neighbour. | James Linsell Clark / SWNS We saved hard.
..it’s all gone now Last December, the charge was dropped because the Crown Prosecution Service deemed it was not in the public interest to proceed.
Mr Bateson said by then, the couple could not continue their legal fight because they could no longer afford to, having already spent £45,000. He said: "We saved and worked hard. It's all gone now.
" Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The fence has not been rebuilt, while the Land Registry has rejected the revised deed because it was not happy with the way the Batesons' signatures were witnessed. Sowerby's and Mrs Leedham's family were contacted for comment. Continue Reading Related topics: Properties Neighbours Video Home owners Comment Comment Guidelines National World encourages reader discussion on our stories.
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