Doctor tore down trellis in a ‘fit of rage’ in row with neighbours, court hears
A doctor ripped down a trellis in “a fit of rage” in a bitter row with her neighbours over who owns a strip of land near their houses, a court heard.
Dr Veena Paes, who specialises in public health research, is embroiled in a court fight with three sets of neighbours in her suburban street.
Her neighbours - Thomas and Florence Benton, Robert Gilder and Althea D’Lima, and Mohammed Shaffi - who own three corner plot properties alongside her £1 million home in Trevelyan Road, Tooting, South London, have “colluded to trespass” on the strip of land which separates all four properties, she claims.
With her finance boss husband, Melanius Paes, she claims there has been a “conspiracy” between her neighbours to take her land, removing a gate which gave her access to the 84ft x 20ft strip.
The couple say they carried out extensive historical research into house deeds and documents dating back to Victorian times which prove the giant strip, which gives them side access to their back garden, is theirs.
They are now facing off in court against their neighbours, who are seeking a ruling that they are the true owners or, alternatively, have gained adverse possession - or squatters’ rights - by use of the strip as part of their property over many years.
Central London County Court heard the strip of disputed land runs behind the three houses belonging to the Paes’s neighbours, who say it is part of their gardens, and alongside the side wall and garden of her property.
Dr Paes began complaining of “encroachment” seven years ago and when HR executives Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima moved into adjoining Bickersteth Road, she wrote them a letter warning them about the dangers of “criminal trespass”.
The Paes claim their neighbours have wrongfully locked them out of the strip by erecting new fencing and removing a gate they used to use to access the land and maintain their garden wall.
The neighbours’ barrister, James Sandham, said tensions boiled over with the Bentons in the summer of 2017, putting to Dr Paes in the witness box: “You ripped their trellis down in a fit of rage in 2017 when you were not getting your way.”
“The trellis was already falling down,” replied the medic.
Mr Sandham went on to accuse Dr Paes of trying to “manipulate and bully” Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima, highlighting a letter sent to the couple after they returned from holiday in 2016 “talking about criminal trespass”.
Tensions simmered over again when Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima “called the police on Dr Paes”, the court heard.
“The correspondence escalated to the extent that the Metropolitan Police wrote to the defendants on Mr Gilder’s behalf, telling them that they could not damage the fence at number 11,” said Mr Sandham, adding: “The Paes have alleged that there is a ‘conspiracy’ between the owners of numbers nine, 11 and 13.
“When you don’t get your own way, you start writing letters and try bullying and coercing people into doing what you want,” he put it to Dr Paes in the witness box.
But she insisted: “It was the other way round, we were being harassed.”
“You were unable to get what you wanted,” Mr Sandham continued. “What you wanted was separate access in order to develop your back garden.”
Addressing the judge, he said: “The Paes only acquired their home in 2006.
“Some 14 years later, they came to believe – or, at least, sought to pose as having a belief in – their entitlement to...the disputed strip.”
Dr Paes first raised the issue of the boundary shifting in 2016 when she complained that one of her previous neighbours had erected a fence in the wrong place, the court heard, while a gate giving the Paes access was also later removed.
From the witness box, Dr Paes said: “There used to be a big gap we could go along to maintain the wall, the issue for me came after July 2015 when we were blocked and didn’t have access.”
The barrister suggested Dr Paes had “dramatised” the summer 2015 tension with her neighbours, insisting that “there was no concerted effort by your neighbours to steal your land”.
The Paes’s barrister, Norah Modha, said his clients are seeking a court order marking out the boundary in their favour, along with an injunction “in respect of the buildings, structures or objects on land that is determined to fall within their title”.
After four days in court, Recorder Green reserved his judgment in the case.
