A pensioner can no longer afford to live in her home after losing a legal battle against her neighbour in a row over a piece of fence.
Muriel Middle, 79, has lived in her mid-terrace home in Pontyclun, South Wales, for 20 years but has been ordered to pay back £15,000 in legal fees after the warring dispute with her neighbour Alexander Miles.
Her daughter Sam, a firefighter, has now bought the home to save her mum from potential bankruptcy.
It all started to go wrong when Mr Miles moved next to the widower in Wales and built an extension in his back garden, removing part of a fence between the two homes so he could access a drainpipe.
But Mrs Middle brought in builders to replace the fencing and said the drainpipe was on her land.
Mr Miles hit back and said the replacement fencing did not match the previous size or colour.
He has declined to comment.
Mrs Middle told MailOnline: ‘I don’t think I’m going to last much longer after going through this for the last couple of years. I just feel ill all the time.
‘I tried to get a loan and equity release, the only way to do it was to gift the property to my daughter so she could get a mortgage to pay the debt off.
‘I feel like I’ve had no justice whatsoever. It’s so far-fetched it’s hard to believe.
‘This man next door has made my life a living hell.
‘The only thing I did was to replace a portion of the fence, 11 planks of wood, and he took out an injunction against me because it was the wrong colour.
‘If you replace wood panels, you’re not going to get the same colour, the existing ones will always be faded.
‘I don’t know how to use a computer. I feel as if I’ve been discriminated against.
‘At my age, I thought I’d be able to relax a bit. But this worry has been hanging over me and even taking the drastic step of Sam getting a mortgage on the property it hasn’t gone away.
‘I can’t afford anything at all, not even a cup of coffee if I go to the shops.’
A case was heard at Cardiff Civil Justice centre last summer where it was upheld in Mr Miles’ favour.
Mrs Middle and her daughter did not have legal representation because they could not afford it.
During the hearing, Mrs Middle gave a statement and said: ‘How I find myself in court defending myself I do not understand. I have done nothing wrong and broken no laws.
‘I’ve not had the easiest life. My first daughter and my husband died and I was left to raise my remaining daughter on my own.
‘As devastating as that was, I can honestly say I have never encountered the stress this has put me under.’
Her daughter Sam said: ‘This has absolutely crushed us. It has left my mother needing to sell her home after working hard all her life.
‘She is too old to remortgage so she had to sell the house to me to free funds to be able to pay this debt. None of this should ever have happened.’
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