Cat Poo Threat Alleged as Neighbours' Fence Row Escalated
Dispute over boundary on Disraeli Close ends up in court
Disraeli Close. Picture: Google Streetview
July 9, 2023
A dispute over the location of a fence between two houses on the Beaconsfield Estate in Chiswick has ended up in court with neighbours suing and countersuing each other.
The row started way back in 2014 when 38-year-old Chris Cole and 37-year-old Ami Komoda put up a new fence after the old one blew down. Their next-door neighbour, 65-year-old Laureen Watson, claims that the new fence encroached by four inches into her garden on Disraeli Close.
Tension between the neighbours escalated when the couple undertook building work to extend their house into their back garden.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, when they wrote to neighbours informing them of the planned work, Ms Watson is said to have thrown the letter back over the fence and sent the couple a note telling them not to post anything else through her letterbox. She had objected to the application when planning permission was applied for, but Ealing Council granted approval.
Ms Watson is now seeking a court order for the extension to be taken down as well as an injunction barring the couple or their builders from her property. She is also claiming for compensation for damage she alleges was done during the building work.
Mr Cole and Ms Komoda have responded by launching a suit of their own in which they claim that they have been harassed by their neighbour during a time when they had recently become parents.
They claim they had to re-erect the fence after it was damaged in 2019 by Ms Watson and that she has tormented them during the course of the dispute, at one point allegedly threatening to ‘shower them with cat poo’.
the Mayor’s and City County Court heard the couple’s barrister Thomas Rothwell say that as building work was underway in 2019 Ms Watson constantly complained about the scaffolding, shouted abuse and threw water at the builders.
Ms Watson says that £32,000 worth of damage was done to her home of 25 years during this time. She is also claiming ownership of the disputed part of the garden on the basis of adverse possession, the law on which squatters’ rights are based, saying that her prolonged use of the area means it now belongs to her.
Mr Cole and Ms Komoda are asking Judge Nicholas Parfitt to define the border between the two properties once and for all.
After the conclusion of the two-day trial, the judge reserved his judgment until a later date.
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