Couple loses Rs 50 lakh savings fighting with their neighbours over fence panels

Neighbours fight everywhere in the world.

But when it leads you to lose $59,623 (Rs 50 lakh), it no longer classifies as a regular tussle.

A couple in Britain lost all their life savings because of a legal battle with their neighbours, all over two fence panels, Daily Mail reported.

Graham and Katherine Bateson objected when Wendy Leedham put the barrier up on the shared driveway between their two bungalows in 2019.

The couple insisted the properties had what was described as a 'featureless boundary' when they bought their home in 1987 and launched litigation.

This dragged on for nearly three years when a mediation hearing ruled the fence could stay.

Mrs Leedham didn't survive to see her victory because she died months before the decision.

(Graham, 75, and Katherine Bateson, 76, have blown their £45,000 life savings)

(Mr and Mrs Bateson claimed the divide (pictured), installed by former neighbour Wendy Leedham, obstructed the entrance to their drive (left)

(Mrs Leedham (pictured) didn't survive to see her victory because she died months before the decision)

(The couple insisted they and Ms Leedham shared what was described as a 'featureless boundary' when they bought their home in 1987 and launched litigation)

(The panels are no longer there after Mr Bateson took Matters into his own hands - for which he spent a night in a police cell)

(But the Batesons fear the boundary will return when the house is bought - following Ms Leedham's death months before a mediation hearing ruled in her favour)

The couple now fear the barrier will go back up after Mrs Leedham's family put the three-bedroom property on the market for £375,000.

"We'd lived here for 32 years without any problems with the previous neighbours. They all agreed it was a shared drive,' said Mrs Bateson, 73, a retired factory supervisor.

(Mrs Bateson, 73, said: 'We'd lived here for 32 years without any problems with the previous neighbours. They all agreed it was a shared drive')

(Plans showing the boundary line between the Bateson's property and their neighbours)

(The Batesons ended the legal battle because they had exhausted their £45,000 funds)

(Mr Bateson said the shared drive and open boundary were subsequently confirmed in a surveyor's report,)

(Mr and Mrs Bateson claimed the two fence panels obstructed the entrance to their drive (left)

Ref: Couple loses Rs 50 lakh savings fighting with their neighbours over fence panels (dailymail) Photo Credit-dailymail