Owner of £300k ‘monster mansion’ hauled to court docket after ANOTHER row

The owner of an illegally built ‘monster mansion’ is being prosecuted by the council for failing to clear rubbish and rubble from the site of his planned dream home.

Gurwinder Singh, faces his first court appearance within weeks for failing to comply with an enforcement orde.

He admitted: ‘I still don’t know what I have done wrong and why neighbours are so cross with me! I am trying to do my best but it’s not good enough.’

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, the father-of two and hard working DPP delivery driver, told of his ordeal of  being hauled before magistrates for an alleged planning breach.

‘The house was demolished nearly nine months ago in December last year so I don’t know why I am still be in trouble. It is very unfair,’ he said.

‘I feel very let down by the system and it is so stressful. It is a planning nightmare.’

A devastated Mr Singh, 43, added: ‘I have spent my life savings on this new house for my family and we have never even lived there. Now it is costing me more money.’

He and his wife Rajwinder Kaur sparked fury in 2000 when they re-built their original semi in a quiet street in Willenhall, near Walsall, West Midlands, with on a large ‘dream home’ in mind and no planning permission.

Neighbours fumed that the unauthorised construction had made their ‘lives hell’ with some describing it as an ‘eyesore’ and likening it to a ‘Travelodge in the middle of a housing estate’ while others some even dubbing it ‘monster mansion.’

Mr Singh had continued to breach local authority orders to totally clean up the site and fully repair a damaged adjoining house following the reluctant bulldozing of his property.

This week, he said: ‘I have done everything to comply but I am still being taken to court in October. It is very worrying.’

‘The house has been taken down, and yes the rubble is still there but it is slowly being cleared.

‘I have had to get more builders in and there are diggers out there as we speak. It’s wasting what little money I have left.

‘I own the land but I can’t live there.’

He continued: ‘I still don’t know what I have done wrong and why neighbours are so cross with me!’

The site in Sandringham Avenue still looks an ‘eyesore’, according to exasperated residents.

It’s packed with building materials, rocks, rubble, piles of wood on the dusty site. 

Now it also has deep holes full of water where the foundations for the unauthorised extension are in the process of being removed.

The process of removing the foundations – which is a requirement by Walsall Council – is set to be a lengthy procedure as the knocked down property adjoins a neighbouring semi belonging to Pat Harding.

Structural engineers for both parties met at the site mid week to thrash out how best to proceed with no more damage to widowed Mrs Harding’s home.

Punjabi-speaking Mr Singh, who is living in a rented property in nearby Walsall whilst his planning battle continues, believes he is being victimised and ‘taken advantage of’ because of his nationality and poor lack of the English language.

He said: ‘I am trying to do my best but it’s not good enough. It is causing so much stress to my and my wife and our young daughters.

‘We don’t want to cause any trouble to our neighbours and we thought the matter had been sorted out. We took our new house down, we fixed the neighbour’s house but now the council said the foundations need to come out.’

Mr Singh is being ordered before Dudley Magistrates’ Court on October 16 – a prospect he said is ‘very worrying.’

Conservative-run Walsall Council has taken action against the home owner for for failing to comply with extended enforcement orders to completely clear the site.

Mr Singh was originally ordered to tear down the family’s half built new four-bed home which they had built without planning permission after knocking down their original semi.

The council had received more than 95 complaints.

Mr Singh insists he has complied with the enforcement order, saying: ‘The house was demolished in December. Some materials and rubble were left on site.

‘At a later date I want to apply for planning permission to build another house there.

‘I’ve done nothing wrong. It is my land and the house has gone and eventually I want to build a new home for my family but I have no money at this time so have not put in any planning application.’

He said he and his wife – parents to girls aged 13 and 14 – had been left ‘distraught, desperate and broken’ after losing their life savings during a bitter planning dispute.

He claims demolition me has cost them a huge £37,000 with another £40,000 being paid to a next door neighbour for damaging her adjoining home.

The row first kicked off in 2020 after Mr Singh demolished a 1960s semi and built a larger £300,000 four-bed house on site.

Initially he never applied for planning permission and had only been given the go-ahead for a side extension to the existing property.

For many months he had refused to tear it down and had begged the council to help ‘find a solution’ but finally admitted defeat to ‘people power,’ quipping: ‘I’ve lost, they’ve won.’

Next door neighbour Mrs Harding told MailOnline: ‘Finally he is being taken to court for the non compliance of an enforcement notice.

‘It is quite amusing that the moment he received his summons, workers have been out in the the past few days trying to finally clear the site.

‘A big digger turned up at six on Saturday morning and various people have been out clearing rubbish.’

The pensioner, 77, who is still in dispute over joint foundations which are having to be dug up, said: ‘The nightmare goes on and I’m in the middle of it!

‘There’s been a site visit and two hour meeting between Mr Singh’s structural engineer and mine. but he didn’t bother turning up t it.

‘If his foundations have to come out my house could fall down!

‘We are a pair of semis built on one slab on former mining land.

‘Mr Singh had extended his house without permission and in the process wrecked mine and I have been overlooking la permanent building site.’

The retired hospital nursery nurse, who has lived in her home for 50 years, said: ‘I don’t want to bad mouth Mr Singh and his wife but I think they have been incredibly foolish and greedy.

‘The site has been an eye sore and has upset and angered a lot of residents. At least the council has made the right decision to take him to court. 

‘For ages he had ignored everything they had told him to do, breaching all the deadlines and failing to fulfil all the criteria of the enforcement notice.

‘It was a disgrace that nothing was done before.

‘Now diggers and heavy machinery are back on site and by the time exploratory works have been undertaken it will be next year before it’s done.

‘It will then have been going on for five years. I fear I will be dead before it is all sorted!’

Describing her nightmare ordeal, she previously said: ‘One time I was sat reading a book on my bed when an RSJ (rolled steel joist) suddenly came through the wall.

 ‘Builders put holes in my living room wall too I could see out of, and my chimney was left unsafe.

‘I was left with plastic sheeting down the side of my outer wall and no proper drainage, causing rising damp.

‘I couldn’t sell this home if I wanted to and all the stress is the last thing I need at my age.’

 Another neighbour Dave Barker, speaking to MailOnline about Mr Singh’s prosecution, said: ‘It is a fair thing for the matter to be taken to court. It had been on the cards.

‘Mr Singh carried on building even after he was told not to and was served with an enforcement notice and should have complied with it.’

The retired driving examiner, whose son is a builder, said: ‘I feel sorry for Pat as taking the foundations up will disturb her house. It’s got to be done correctly and with care.

‘Poor Pat, she doesn’t need all this. She just wants a quiet life and it has been destroyed.

‘She’s been put through hell, someone of her age shouldn’t still be suffering because someone wants to go roughshod through the planning land.

‘Because he still owned the land and he thought he could do whatever he wanted. He didn’t want to comply with building regs like everyone else has to.’

Mr Barker, 70, admitted he felt some sympathy for the owner, saying: ‘He has had four of five different architects and builders who weren’t advising him and doing the work properly.

‘At least should have advised him correctly about what to do or not. They are professional people.’

Walsall ward councillor Stacey Elson, who has been representing the local residents’ fight against the illegal build since she as first elected four years ago, said: ‘This has been my first experience as a councillor, and it is still ongoing.’

She previously said: ‘The site should have been cleared up by the householder. He should have fully abided by the enforcement notice but has clearly failed to do so.

‘An enforcement officer visited the site to check on the progress and has taken photos and will write a report to submit to legal services for assessment and with a view for prosecution.

‘The council will take legal advise on how best to resolves this. If Mr Singh has actively breached the enforcement notice he could be prosecuted.

The councillor said the planning dispute had been dragging on for years and had been ‘very difficult’ for neighbours, particularly the elderly woman in the adjoining semi, who had been left with holes in her walls,.

She told how an elderly, disabled woman who used to live opposite the property in Sandringham Avenue until her death in January, had been traumatised by the building work.

She said: ‘The poor lady living in her downstairs room used to fear the scaffolding would fall down and come through her house and impale her.’

The councillor added:’ I am really proud the way our local community has come together to fight this.

‘They have nothing against the gentleman who owns it, but have been against the house only.’

A Walsall Council spokesperson said: ‘The council is monitoring the situation to ensure all actions in the enforcement notice are complied with.’