Ex-car plant worker reveals toll of four-year legal battle to force his neighbours to rip down £80,000 extension because it was built TWO INCHES too close to his home
- A couple have been hit with massive legal fees in a row over an extension
- The pair built the extension just two inches into their neighbours’ garden
- Mr Dhinjan said the four-year legal battle has impacted his mental health
A former car plant worker has revealed the toll of a four-year legal battle to force his neighbours to rip down their £80,000 extension because it was built two inches too close to his home.
Avtar and Balvinder Dhinjan were left furious when their next door neighbour’s new extension strayed 2.68in on to their land, with a roof overhanging 3.86in on the wrong side of the line.
Shabaz Ashraf, 45, and his wife Shakira, 40, were ordered to tear down the extension to their £700,000 London home by a judge after the Dhinjans accused them of deliberately building on their land and causing ‘damp and mould’ in their home.
The Ashrafs estimate they spent £80,000 replacing a 1970s extension at the back of their house in 2019, only for their neighbours to complain it was inches over their boundary. They have been ordered to demolish it and pay £200,000 in legal fees.
Despite clashing over the extension, the two couples used to be on good terms – and Mr Dhinjan – a former Ford car plant worker – has opened up about the detrimental impact the row has had on his mental health.
The Ashrafs were found to have built the extension at their home (left) two inches over the boundary of their neighbours’ property (right)
Avtar Dhinjan, right, (pictured with his son Gurpeet outside court) and his wife won the case against their neighbours over the extension. He has opened up about the toll it had on his mental health
Speaking to The Sun about the bitter dispute, Mr Dhinjan said: ‘I’m very under pressure.
‘I’ve been going through it all for four years for no reason.
‘I feel very depressed.’
READ MORE: Couple whose London home extension strayed two INCHES too close to their neighbours’ house are ordered to rip down £80K annex and pay £200K in legal bills after claims it ’caused mould and damp next door’
The relationship ultimately became too strained, prompting the Ashrafs to move home. There are now new tenants in the property who were reportedly unaware of the long-running dispute.
Mr Dhinjan had previously claimed his neighbours ‘intended to annoy’ him and his family by building over the boundary between their homes.
While admitting the ‘encroachment’ over their border is very small, the Dhinjans complained their neighbours’ extension is making their own house damp and ‘mouldy’ because it is so close to their wall that it leaves no room for air circulation outside.
They sued at Central London County Court, demanding an injunction forcing the Ashrafs to demolish the encroaching wall.
A judge criticised the ‘high-handed’ neighbours for ‘trespassing’ and ordered them to knock down the offending wall.
Mr and Mrs Ashraf had defended the case, saying they built the new extension on the footprint of the 1970s one and that any encroachment must have already been going on for over 40 years, giving them squatters’ rights.
Shabaz Ashraf, 45, and his wife Shakira, 40, were ordered to tear down the extension to their £700,000 London home
But Rachel Coyle, for the Dhinjans, told the judge that the 2019 rebuild went beyond the footprint of the old extension and as a result was ‘flush’ against the outer wall of their house.
‘There was an encroachment which, while de minimis [minimal] in valuation terms, causes significant injury to the land belonging to the claimants,’ argued their barrister.
‘The defendants’ continued course of conduct intended to annoy.
‘Only removal and building it where it should be will prevent mould and damp, failing which the claimants’ extension will become virtually uninhabitable.
‘The injury is not one that can be compensated in money,’ she said.
The judge said: ‘One of the sad features of the case is that before the parties began building new extensions to the rear of their property, they lived in harmony and were on good terms.
‘The defendants say they built the wall in exactly the same position as the previous wall, which was in position for 41 years. I find that that is, to the defendants’ knowledge, wholly untrue.
A judge said the Ashrafs had acted in a ‘high-handed’ manner over the dispute between the neighbouring homes
‘The joint expert surveyor concluded in his report there was an encroachment of 68mm.
‘I can see from the pictures that the breeze blocks have been built outside the existing boundary, so the notion that they built inside the existing boundary line is not sustainable because the pictures show where the existing boundary line is. Their new wall is clearly outside that wall.
‘The wall erected by the defendants is encroaching on the claimants’ land.
‘The claimants put their case for an injunction on this basis. They say this is a case where the defendants acted in a high-handed manner throughout and have deliberately overridden the claimants when they were saying there was an encroachment on their land.’
The judge found that, by April 2019, Mr and Mrs Ashraf ‘were on notice that they would be encroaching and that there would be a trespass’, but carried on with their project regardless.
He found that Mrs Ashraf had said to her neighbours during a row over the issue: ‘If you think we have come over, then go to court.’
The Ashrafs have been ordered to demolish the extension at their home (right) and pay thousands in legal fees
The judge also told the Ashrafs to make a declaration that the fence between the two houses belongs to the Dhinjans.
As well as having pay their own costs, he ordered Mr and Mrs Ashraf to pay their neighbours’ legal bills – estimated at almost £100,000, with £49,009 up front.
The total cost of the case was estimated by lawyers outside court at around £200,000, on top of which Mr and Mrs Ashraf will face the costs of knocking down and rebuilding their extension.
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