Pensioner has ‘no regrets’ after five-year court battle for one foot of land that cost her £420,000 home – saying: ‘If I had to do it all again I would’

A pensioner evicted from his home after losing a five-year legal battle with his neighbor over a 1ft piece of land has insisted he has ‘no regrets’.

Jenny Field, 77, was evicted from her home in Poole, Dorset, on Monday by bailiffs after a judge ordered it sold to pay the £113,000 she owed in solicitors’ fees to her neighbour, Pauline Clark.

He has been provided emergency accommodation by the local authority for the next six weeks and will then need to make his own living arrangements.

Ms Field told the Daily Mail: ‘I don’t know what I’ll do or where I’ll live after the six weeks are up.

‘My life has become a nightmare, everything is uncertain and it’s causing me a lot of stress. How could the court do this to an old woman like me?

‘But I have no regrets. I had to fight this case in the courts, I had no choice because this woman stole my land.

‘I lost my home and it cost me a lot but if I had to do it all over again I would.’

He added: ‘Sometimes you just have to take a stand. My only regret is that I should not have purchased a house next door to this woman (Mrs. Clark) in the first place.

The pensioner was evicted on Monday after bailiffs arrived and ordered the house to be sold to pay off a £113,000 debt he owed to his neighbour.

‘If I had known what it would be like, I would have bought a bungalow somewhere else.

‘I’ve only been able to collect a few clothes from my house and I’m going to a local food bank to eat. ‘The way I was treated by the court was disgusting but I had to do the right thing.’

Ms Field was given 21 days to clear the contents of her £420,000 home, which she bought in 2016, before it was put on the market.

The dispute began when Ms. Clarke erected a boundary fence on Ms. Field’s land that she claimed was 12 inches wide.

Two months later, he hired his own contractors and had the 6-foot fence torn down. He then relocated it to reclaim his ‘land’.

Mrs. Clark took him to court and won; Ms Field agreed to cover the costs of the fence she demolished and two-thirds of Ms Clark’s legal fees (about £21,000 at the time).

But Ms Field refused to accept the outcome and the case went to court multiple times, causing the legal bill to soar into six figures.

He explained that he has two adult children who live close to London but did not want to move in with them because he did not want to be a ‘burden’.

Neighbor Pauline Clark has a photo of her leaving Bournemouth District Court last September

The boundary between Ms Field’s bungalow on the left and her neighbor Pauline Clark’s bungalow on the right is at the center of the five-year dispute

Ms Field evicted after refusing to accept Ms Clarke’s legal victory at the border

Ms Field added: ‘My children told me to accept the court order, pay my neighbour, buy a new house with the remaining money and move on with my life. But right now I can’t even think about the future.

‘I can’t sleep, my health is bad and this whole thing has turned into absolute hell.’

Ms Field insisted she did not have the money to continue fighting her case in court but would try to appeal the decision as best she could.

He said: ‘I sent emails to the land registry and the court informing them that this decision was wrong and that they had no right to evict me. But nobody listens to me.’

Last September a district court judge said Ms Field’s claims that Ms Clark’s case was fraudulent were ‘completely unfounded’ and ordered her house to be sold.

He was given until December 6 to pay the £113,000 bill or his house would be sold off his hands to clear the debt.

Judge Ross Fentem said the ‘draconian order’ was a last resort but Ms Field had every opportunity to pay the price.

Ms. Field admitted that relations between herself and Ms. Clark were never good after they moved into her bungalow.

She said: ‘He moved out a year before me in 2015 and to be honest we never got along. We rarely talked and never even drank a cup of tea together. ‘I never loved him, and he never loved me.’

Ms Clark’s lawyer, Anna Curtis, said Ms Field had sufficient equity in her estate that she could pay off her debt and buy a comfortable mortgage-free retirement property with cash left over.

Giving his judgment at Bournemouth County Court last September, Judge Fentem said: ‘This is a very long-standing boundary dispute. Accused [Ms Field] He attempted to re-litigate the original case through various means.

‘Her situation is basically… the original fence was a boundary fence and it was entirely on her land.

‘Every attempt to re-litigation has failed. He seems convinced that some kind of fraud has been committed. There seems to be no basis for the claim.

‘There is no evidence in the documents that any crime has been committed.

‘I have no confidence in the plaintiff’ [Mrs Clark] Except for the sales order, the debt owed to him will be paid.

‘This issue needs resolution, the parties need to find a way to put this entire dispute behind them.

‘A sales order is a last resort and a draconian solution, but in this case I must place a sales order taking all factors into account.’