Clash in the attic
Banker may have to tear down loft extension... as it just touches neighbours’ £1.5million home
A BANKeR was yesterday accused of trespassing on her neighbours’ £1.5million home by building a loft conversion that crossed the boundary between their properties.
Debbie Ranford could be forced to tear down part of the costly roof extension to her flat.
Neighbours Liz and Adam Peck, who run a gender-neutral organic children’s clothing company, are suing Mrs Ranford and claim her loft conversion has damaged their four-bedroom house, causing a large crack in their wall and water leaks inside.
Mrs Ranford claims the Pecks agreed to her building on top of the dividing wall between their terraced homes in an affluent area of south-east London.
The warring neighbours were initially friendly but the case has blighted both of their properties, leaving neither side able to sell while the dispute continues, Central London County Court heard.
Mrs Peck, 49, owner of children’s outfitter Our Little Tribe, said she and her husband had agreed to Mrs Ranford’s
‘Both properties are blighted’
for a loft conversion, but had believed it would stop short of the boundary between their homes.
The couple’s three-storey house in east Dulwich already had a loft conversion when they bought it in 2010.
In 2014, Mrs Ranford decided to carry out a similar conversion on her upper floor flat next door, and asked her neighbours to sign a party wall notice to consent to it. The Pecks agreed, and Mrs Peck was given a tour of the extension by torchlight after a dinner party, the court was told. But in 2015 the Pecks started to notice leaks and cracks in the first-floor shared wall between their homes.
They hired a roofer to investigate, who told them that their neighbour’s loft conversion had crossed the boundary between their properties.
Giving evidence, Mrs Peck said their own loft conversion stopped just under an inch from the boundary, and that they had understood that Mrs Ranford’s extension would leave a gap between the two lofts.
She said: ‘We had no awareness that next door had built up and on to our property. To see that, you have to be right at the end of our garden.’ Mr Peck, a singerplans songwriter, added: ‘It was quite a shock to discover something very different had been built.’
The couple’s barrister Richard egleton said Mrs Ranford’s builder had extended the shared party wall upwards, but had used it as the outer wall of her loft.
The small gap between the two conversions was then filled with material on the Pecks’ side in an effort to prevent weather damage, he said.
Mr egleton claimed the work was a ‘continuing trespass’ on the Pecks’ home which had caused damage and said Mrs Ranford should be ordered to remove any parts of her extension which were on the Pecks’ side, or on the party wall itself.
he told the court Mrs Ranford had unsuccessfully tried to sell the flat twice since the conversion and the resulting dispute.
he said: ‘Both properties are blighted in the sense that realistically they cannot be sold whilst the dispute exists.’
Mrs Ranford, who works in regulatory reporting for a major investment bank, told Judge Simon Monty QC: ‘We have not crossed over the wall in terms of our building.’ She said building on the party wall was ‘unavoidable’ due to fire regulations and the only overlapping on to the Pecks’ side was done to weatherproof the two conversions.
Mrs Ranford said her neighbours had consented to her plans, and to a later amendment because of fire regulations, and insisted there had been no damage to their property.
her builder Gary eldred said he had spoken to Mrs Peck before he started work and that she had known he was going to build on the party wall. Mr egleton said Mr and Mrs Peck denied making any such agreement. The case continues.