Wealthy hipster couple suing neighbour whose loft extension touches their home

05 April 2023 , 09:15

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Liz and Adam Peck, who are suing neighbour Debbie Ranford over a loft extension (Image: Champion News)

A wealthy couple who blew £130,000 suing their banker neighbour for building her loft conversion inches too close to their £1.5 million home have now won the right to fight their case again.

Liz Peck, who runs gender-neutral organic kids' clothing company 'Our Little Tribe', and her singer-songwriter husband Adam, were criticised by a judge for using a 'sledgehammer to crack a nut' after they sued neighbour Debbie Ranford over a "very minor" boundary issue last year.

They had sued in the hope of getting Mrs Ranford to tear down her loft extension - but Judge Simon Monty at Central London County Court instead awarded them just £200 compensation and told them to pay the £130,000 legal costs of the case.

Now, the pair have been granted permission to appeal in the High Court in a bid to get their damages payout increased.

During the trial, the county court heard that Mrs Ranford built the loft room at her two-storey flat in the affluent area of East Dulwich, London, back in 2014 after getting consent from Mr and Mrs Peck.

The couple have been granted permission for an appeal to get their damages payout increased after a judge awarded them just £200 last year (Champion News)

But Mrs Peck told the court she was horrified when she learned that in order to get a bigger loft room, Mrs Ranford's builder had built on the boundary line and encroached onto their property.

Giving evidence, the 49-year-old told Judge Simon Monty KC that the work they consented to should have stopped short of the boundary between the two properties.

Representing the couple, barrister Richard Egleton said Mrs Ranford had opted not to leave a gap between the two extensions because she did not want to have a smaller loft room.

Instead of leaving a gap, the builder had extended the party wall upwards to use as the outer wall of Mrs Ranford's loft room, with the gap between the two dormers filled with material on the Pecks' side to prevent weather damage.

Leopard breaks into court and injures several people before being locked in cage

Mrs Peck said work they consented to should have stopped short of the boundary between the two properties in East Dulwich (Champion News)

The barrister claimed the work had resulted in a "clear trespass" and that Mrs Ranford should be ordered to dismantle the dormer.

In his ruling, Judge Monty accepted that Mrs Ranford's builder had explained to Mrs Peck that he intended to build on the party wall, but that she had not actually agreed to it.

However, he said he would not make an injunction ordering Mrs Ranford to pull down her loft extension because the resulting trespass was "very minor" and instead awarded the Pecks £200 damages.

He said: "I do not believe that any court would direct the mandatory removal of a soundly constructed dormer which had caused and was causing no damage purely because of what was at best a minor trespass,"

"The court has the power to award damages in lieu of an injunction. That in my judgment, is the appropriate relief in this case.
"I entirely reject Mr and Mrs Peck's case that the trespass was cynical and calculated. On the facts, it was not."

Benedict Tetzlaff-Deas