Family Ordered To Give £600,000 Home To Their Neighbours

A family is kicking off after a judge ordered them to hand over their home of 31 years over to their neighbours to sell, after falling out over three inches of land.

A court ruling means the Constantines have to get out of their £600,000 ($800,000) seven-bedroom home in East Ham, London.

It comes after they accused their neighbours, the Ali family, of tresspassing, who took down the Constantines' fence while they were on holiday in 2009.

house

Credit: Google Street View

But a judge sided with the Alis, claiming that the extension did not amount to tresspass at the conclusion of a eight-year legal battle.

The judge ordered Yvette Constantine, 57, and husband Herman, 66, to hand over the keys to the Ali family next door, so they could sell it to recoup legal fees after an eight-year battle.

It states £132,544 ($177,744) from the sale will pay the Ali family's legal fees, with the remainder given to the Constantines. The final ruling was issue on 1 December due to non-payment.

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Judges ordered the Constantines to hand over their keys. Credit: PA

A Sun source said: "They will lose the house they had for 31 years and be homeless after Christmas. All because they objected about a neighbours' fence."

The Constantines are believed to be 'devastated' by the ruling, which could mean that they will be homeless over the holidays.

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Credit: SWNS

But speaking this morning, their neighbour Sardar Ali, 62, told MailOnline: "It's been a very hard time. I don't want to talk about it. The time to talk about it was eight years ago but not now. Talk to my son about it, he's not around at the moment."

Mark Woloshak, of lawyers Slater and Gordon, told the Sun: "Border disputes can be horrendously expensive. If you lose you pay the other sides' costs. "That's how it works."

A neighbour also told the Sun: "I didn't know anything was going on there, I don't know them but I didn't realise that was happening."

They added that the Constantines were 'just normal neighbours'.

This has turned into a bad situation for all parties.

Topics: UK News, House

Chris Ogden

Chris Ogden is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from the University of East Anglia with degrees in English Literature and Creative Writing before completing his NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism. Chris has previously written for the independent culture magazine The Skinny, among other publications.

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