31 January 2023 , 17:28
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A couple have taken their “monstrous” millionaire neighbours to High Court claiming they have built a 6ft tall fence that stops them using their front door.
Gary and Kerry Hambling have blasted millionaire neighbours Garry and Jenny Wakerly’s "deliberately and unpleasantly antagonistic" actions in a High Court battle.
The Hamblings thought they had found their dream house in 2015 when they moved into Garden Cottage, near Polstead, Suffolk.
The gorgeous four bedroom chocolate box home with a quarter of an acre of gardens, its own stable block and a two-acre field just yards away - across a drive owned by the Wakerlys.
But that was before a row with the Wakerlys - whose £1m house, Tills Farm Cottage, lies on the same former farm as the Hamblings' - led to them putting up a fence, allegedly blocking off steps the Hamblings had built from their front door to the track, preventing them leaving their property in that direction.
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An aerial view of Garden Cottage, Polstead, Suffolk, showing the driveway, the field and the car parking area (Champion News)The furious Hamblings claim the fence has wiped £100,000 off the value of their £600,000 house, also allegedly blocking access from their stables to the field. It has also cut off their views and made their ground floor dark and gloomy, they claim.
They are now asking a High Court judge to force their neighbours to reopen their "front door" access, labelling their actions "monstrous" and "deliberately and unpleasantly antagonistic".
For their part, the Wakerlys allege the Hamblings have been using the door to unlawfully "trespass" on their driveway whilst going between their cottage and the field, and that they put up the fence to stop them.
The Hamblings thought they had found their dream house in 2015 when they bought Garden Cottage (Champion News)Judge Sir Anthony Mann heard that the "unfortunate" neighbours' squabble started in 2016, about a year after the Hamblings had moved into Garden Cottage.
The Hamblings inherited a right of way to the driveway but only to access the field, not to access their house, which has a separate access on the other side. When they turned part of their field into a parking place for cars and vans the Wakerlys withdrew access to the cottage, the court heard.
Frictions grew between the two couples culminating in an exchange of lawyers letters which saw the Wakerlys accuse their neighbours of “trespassing” and putting up a 1.8m fence.
A view of Garden Cottage from the track, taken before the fence was built (Champion News)The case has already hit court once with Judge Karen Walden-Smith at Norwich County Court ruling in favour of the Wakerlys and allowing the fence blocking off Garden Cottage from the track and the field to remain.
Challenging that finding in the High Court, Dermot Woolgar, for Mr and Mrs Hambling, said the judge in the county court had misinterpreted the wording of the right of way.
"The effect of the fence has been to make the front door to the cottage redundant, and to make it impossible to go from the stables through the gate, across the track, and into the field," he said.
Gary and Kerry Hambling (Champion News)But Charles Irvine, for the Wakerlys, asked the judge to throw out their neighbours' case and let the fence stand as it is.
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"The transfer wording is clear that the track should only be used 'for access to the field not to Garden Cottage', i.e. for access to and from the field and not to and from the cottage," he said.
The judge reserved his ruling on the case at the end of a day long hearing and will give his decision at a later date.