Helpless couple on vacation pressured to look at neighbours steal their backyard in actual time
Rosa and Murray Bell had not seen their daughter for four years, so were looking forward to spending Christmas with her in Australia, but they were stunned to see builders working on their garden while they were away
A retired couple watched in horror as CCTV showed them live footage of their neighbours ‘land-grabbing’ their garden while they were on holiday in Australia.
Rosa Bell, 67, and hubby Murray, 72, were shocked when builders removed their boundary fence, dug up their patio and tore their shed down.
The warring neighbours have been locked in a bitter boundary dispute when the Bells applied for an extension to the side of their three-bed Surrey home and raised concerns about their neighbours’ overhanging guttering.
But it escalated to new heights though when the couple were visiting their daughter – who they had not seen since before the pandemic – on the other side of the world.
They say neighbours – named in legal documents as Huy Eng Myers and Michael Myers – claimed a total of 1.2 meters at one end and 76cm at the other end of the garden as their own.
Rosa said the council and police won’t take any action and she is left to pursue the matter through civil court.
Different surveys have been ‘inconclusive’ on the boundary, with only ‘crude’ deeds drawn up in the 1930s, around 20 years before the homes were built.
Rosa said she failed in a court bid for damages but no legal ruling on who officially owns the land has yet been made.
She said: “It is such a stressful situation. We both retired and bought this lovely house that was going to be our forever home. But these people have just taken the law into their own hands. This is a living hell.”
Rosa and Murray moved into the detached three-bed 1950s house near Epsom Downs in 2019 after buying it for £670,000.
As they visited their daughter in Australia in December 2022, they checked their home CCTV footage and watched on in disbelief as builders started working on their garden.
The whole fence was taken down, a maple tree was cut and one man was seen on camera cutting her apple tree branches and a new fence was put up by the neighbours to claim their new boundary while they were away.
Four months later the Bells put their own fence back in its original position.
But when the family were away on holiday again the following June, the new fence was again taken down and people were again seen entering and carrying out work in her garden without consent.
Rosa said: “We saw everything they were doing on camera when we were on the other side of the world.
“One day they would do one thing, then they would do something else. It was like they were teasing us knowing we were so far away.”
Legal papers relating to the case state a claim that the original boundary fence had been “accepted by both parties to be the legal boundary”.
When approached, Huy Eng Myers, known as Victoria, declined to comment, but claimed they had been the ones who had been ‘harassed’ and reiterated they had ‘won a court’ ruling on the claim for damages.
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