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A house which was destroyed by a despairing landlord following a 17-year war with a ‘squatting’ tenant has been rebuilt – but may have to be torn down again.
The three-bedroomed home was left in a shocking state of repair after Louis Scudder launched into a frenzied one-man demolition mission which led to a 24-hour stand-off with police.
Last year the Daily Mail told how Mr Scudder, 53, was left penniless and living in a leaking caravan after his childhood home was repossessed and sold off at auction.
It was bought for £134,000 by a property developer who spent months carrying out renovation work.
But the Daily Mail can reveal that planning officials have launched an investigation after extensions were added to the former family home without permission so the property could be turned into a hostel.
Neighbours have complained that extra rooms were added in the roof and at the back of the end of the terrace property in Sheerness, Kent which is now operating as a house in multiple occupation (HMO).
One local resident told the Daily Mail: ‘We thought our troubles were over and now this happens.
‘We had to evacuate our homes when Louis went up on the roof and started demolishing the house and then we had to put up with what looked like a bomb site for over a year.
Police were forced to evacuate neighbours and seal off the area as the one-man demolition operation continued in Sheerness, Kent
A house which was destroyed by a despairing landlord following a 17-year war with a ‘squatting’ tenant has been rebuilt
The ordeal left a scene of devastation, which saw Mr Scudder rip of tiles from his own roof with his bare hand (Pictured: The home from a road view)
Mr Scudder told how he ’snapped’ after attempts to take back his property dating back to 2007 led to a series of court battles which he claimed never went in his favour. Pictured: The home since it has been rebuilt
Last year the Daily Mail told how Mr Scudder, 53, (pictured left) was left penniless and living in a leaking caravan after his childhood home was repossessed and sold off at auction. Pictured right: His former tenant Ayshea Kramer
‘Now this property developer has come in and turned it into an HMO. There are six separate units and six separate doorbells. God knows who’s going to end up living there.
‘This would have made a perfect home for a family which is much needed around here but there’s much more money in it when its divide it into six parts charging tenants up to £700-a-month each. It’s pure greed.’
Another local said: ‘They put in a dormer room in the roof and another one at the back of the house. No one ever applied for planning permission for this.
‘At the moment there’s three people living there, two men and a woman. They’ve been moving in over recent weeks and the property is being advertised on websites was a house share.
‘We had somebody from the council who came round knocking on doors asking questions about it all.
‘The place has just been put back up after it was dismantled by the previous owner and was left in a terrible state.
‘Now they could end up having to take it all down again because of the illegal work that was carried out. It’s unbelievable.’
Local planning authority Swale Borough Council said of the development: ‘We are currently investigating the property for a breach of planning control and as a suspected unlicensed house in multiple occupation (HMO).’
The troubled history of the property was laid bare in August 2024 when police in riot gear surrounded the house after Mr Scudder climbed onto the roof and launched into his wrecking rampage
Ripping off tiles and smashing windows with his bloodied hands he told onlookers: ‘I’m not coming down until I’ve destroyed the whole place’
A spokesperson added: ‘As these are active investigations we cannot comment further, but we want to reassure our residents that we take these issues very seriously.’
It comes as the authority pledged to crackdown on ‘predatory and exploitative landlords who are carving up properties to fit as many people in as possible’.
The troubled history of the property was laid bare in August 2024 when police in riot gear surrounded the house after Mr Scudder climbed onto the roof and launched into his wrecking rampage.
Ripping off tiles and smashing windows with his bloodied hands he told onlookers: ‘I’m not coming down until I’ve destroyed the whole place. I’m going to take it apart brick by brick.’
He took up position upstairs in the property, hurling debris to the ground for hours on end.
Walls came crashing down and pipe work was shattered as Mr Scudder rained blow after blow on the property with a sledgehammer – reducing brickwork to piles of rubble.
Last year Mr Scudder told how he had been left ‘a broken man’ after the property was repossessed when he fell behind with the £850-a-month mortgage payments.
That was double the £400-a-month fixed-rate rent that tenant Ayesha Kramer was paying under a 25-year tenancy agreement which Mr Scudder claimed was agreed without his knowledge or consent.
Mr Scudder told how he ’snapped’ after attempts to take back his property dating back to 2007 led to a series of court battles which he claimed never went in his favour.
Last year he was ordered by a court to pay his tenant £53,000 for lost possessions and damages after Mr Scudder’s actions made her homeless.
The Daily Mail can reveal that planning officials have launched an investigation after extensions were added to the former family home without permission so the property could be turned into a hostel
Neighbours have complained that extra rooms were added in the roof and at the back of the end of the terrace property in Sheerness, Kent which is now operating as a house in multiple occupation (HMO)
The three-bedroomed home was left in a shocking state of repair after Louis Scudder launched into a frenzied one-man demolition mission which led to a 24-hour stand-off with police
Before the ruling Mr Scudder told the Daily Mail: ‘My tenant has made my life hell. I struggle to get out of bed most days. All I can do at the moment is just survive.
‘I can’t move on because I’ve still got a load of legal issues hanging over me. I’ve not had a stable life for God knows how long and any money I’m likely to make is probably going to have to go to the bank or the tenant, it’s like the final kick in the face.
‘I wasn’t able to sell the house because I had a sitting tenant with this ridiculous tenancy so nobody would entertain buying it.
‘I couldn’t even remortgage, redevelop the house and get someone else in who would pay a decent rent.
‘In the end, the bank took the house from me and I’ve lost all trust in the system.’
He told how he ended up living with his partner Zoe Clulow, 30, and her eight-year-old son in a caravan on the Isle of Sheppey that was ‘slowly falling apart’.
He said: ‘The room meant to be our bedroom has a huge tear in the corner of the wall.
‘Our electricity comes from an extension lead from a kind neighbour so we only use the bare minimum and have a diesel heater for warmth.
‘We don’t have a working toilet either. It’s really basic but at least I have a roof over my head. That’s something I suppose.’
Mr Scudder took matters into his own hands after growing increasingly frustrated that he had been unable to live in his property.
Fearing the authorities were against him in March 2024, he waited for Ms Kramer, 52, to go out shopping before climbing in through a window to gain entry.
He removed her possessions and dumped them outside before changing the locks but was ordered by a court to quit the property and hand back the keys.
As a legal battle rumbled on, Mr Scudder returned in June 2024 where he began slowly dismantling the property.
He was arrested and was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months for causing a public nuisance and breaching an injunction.
But two months later, he went back with a sledgehammer to finish the job.
Officers in riot gear were drafted in while specially trained negotiators tried to coax him down from the rafters of his wrecked property.
Ambulance crews and fire fighters were also called in amid fears damage to pipes and cables could cause an explosion.
Mr Scudder grew up in the house with his hard-working single mother Angela and younger brother.
He bought the property from the council in the early 1990s from money he earned as a carpenter but towards the end of the decade fell on hard times and was forced to leave the area for a number of years after finding himself in ‘a challenging personal situation’.
An aunt suggested he arrange for it to be rented out to help him pay off his mortgage but Mr Scudder claims that unbeknown to him a 25-year tenancy agreement had been signed.
In 1999 Ms Kramer moved into the property and it was there that she brought up her three daughters – twins aged 27 and their older sister who is now aged 31.
A current aerial view of the property which has since been repaired
Officers in riot gear were drafted in while specially trained negotiators tried to coax him down from the rafters of his wrecked property
Ambulance crews and fire fighters were also called in amid fears damage to pipes and cables could cause an explosion
Mr Scudder said: ‘I knew nothing of the tenancy agreement until I went to court in 2007.
‘By that time, I’d got myself together and wanted to get my home back and life back on track so I served Ayesha notice but she refused to leave.
‘I applied for a Section 21 eviction notice through the courts but when I got there she produced this tenancy in front of everyone.
‘She had the council on her side, she had solicitors. I didn’t have anyone with me and didn’t understand the court process. I was completely unprepared and unaware.
‘The judge asked me if it was my aunt’s signature on the agreement to which I replied “I think so”. But I’ve since checked with my aunt, she remembers signing Ayesha’s rent-book but not a 25-year tenancy agreement.
‘Even if my aunt had signed such an agreement, it shouldn’t be legally binding because only my name and my mother’s name were on the deeds of that property.
‘Within that tenancy agreement there was no clause to say that the rent could increase at any point with inflation. It was to remain at £400 a month for 25-years…for a three-bedroom house in Kent.
‘She was paying that right up until about four years ago – when the council upped her disability benefit payments and she started paying £650.
‘But for the best part of 17-years she made out that that house was hers and took full control of it.
‘She wouldn’t let me into my own home to carry out any repairs nor for any maintenance issues like boiler checks.
‘She even refused to pass on my post and also had a garden patio laid without consulting me and against building regulations because it was built so water ran down to the house and caused untold damp problems through the walls.
‘It’s a ludicrous situation. I’m a homeowner who is homeless, I’ve had to live in motorhomes, boats and sofa-surf in friends’ houses. Now I’m in a caravan.’
Mr Scudder claims that Ms Kramer was told by the council and homeless charity Shelter in 2024 that she was legally able to remain in his house until he served another Section 21 notice.
But he said: ‘I didn’t have the money to go back through all that again. Plus in order to get a Section 21, I have to have my gas and electricity certificates all in order – but she wouldn’t let me in to do the checks.
‘When the court ordered myself, Zoe and her son to leave and remove all our belongings from my home, I snapped.
‘By this point I’m a broken man and I’ve had a complete mental breakdown and I’ve gone up to the roof and started to tear it down with my bare hands.
‘Ayesha had been offered multiple council houses but she turned them all down and kept refusing them because she wanted a two bed bungalow with a garden.
‘In my eyes I thought “if you want a bungalow…I’ll give you a bungalow” and I took my roof down.’
Ms Clulow also spoke to the Daily Mail to defend her partner and said: ‘Louis isn’t a dangerous person, he’s a broken man who feels failed by the legal system.
Pictured: The aftermath caused to the home after its former owner stirpped it bare
Piles of furniture could be seen outside of the home following Mr Scudder stand off with police
Pictured: Remnants of a roof after Mr Scudder tore it apart
Neighbours previously complained that his one man demolition operation has also damaged their homes (Pictured: Mr Scudder’s roof)
Pictured: A formerly smashed window after the home was dest royed
Pictured left to righ: Rubble is strewn in Mr Scudder’s garden after the stand off and a window smashed at the property
‘After 17 years of fighting just to live in his own home, he now faces serious legal consequences, emotional trauma, and financial ruin. His goal was never violence – it was simply to get his home and life back, something most people would take for granted.’
Friends of Ms Kramer, meanwhile, told how she too has been left traumatised by the experience – losing her home and most of her possessions including treasured family photographs.
Johnley Videna – of Duncan Lewis Solicitors, which handled the civil case on behalf of Ms Kramer – said: ‘Taking matters into your own hands not only violates tenants’ rights but can result in serious financial penalties and legal consequences.
‘This case is a stark warning: always respect due process.’