Pensioner evicted from £420k home over 1ft strip of land
An elderly woman has been evicted from her home as a result of a five-year legal battle she's been having with a neighbour.
Jenny Field, 77, had her home seized by bailiffs on Monday (26 January) after losing a boundary dispute over a one-foot strip of land, with a county court judge ruling in favour of her neighbour.
It means that the pensioner must now give up her £420,000 bungalow situated in a quiet cul-de-sac in Poole, Dorset.
The property is set to be sold to cover the £113,000 legal bill she owes neighbour Pauline Clark, 64,
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Jenny didn't answer the door to court bailiffs when they arrived to the home at 11am yesterday, as she told them to leave her alone before a locksmith used an electric saw to gain entry to the home.
She stepped out to explain her case, before being refused re-entry, though she will be allowed to remove her belongings.
Pauline didn't want to comment on the situation, but her son-in-law Matthew Corbin said: "My mother-in-law has very mixed emotions today.
"There is relief but she doesn't know what will happen next. It's not nice to see someone get evicted and we wish it didn't come to this."
All the controversy began after Pauline erected a boundary fence in 2020, which Jenny claimed had moved 12 inches onto her land.
She even hired contractors to take it down two months later, repositioning it to reclaim the land she claimed belonged to her.
Pauline then took Jenny to court, winning the case and forcing her neighbour to pay for the cost of the fence she took down and two-thirds of her legal fees, which stood at £21,000.
Jenny attempted to appeal the result in court on several occasions, driving the legal bill up to six figures, as the Brit was finally forced to concede following a final appeal in September 2025.
A country court judge dismissed the 77-year-old's claim that Pauline's case was fraudulent, 'totally without merit'.
Jenny was handed a deadline of 6 December to pay the £113,000 bill, or have her home sold to settle the debt under a 'Draconian order', which Judge Ross Fentem said was the last resort after she was given several chances to pay.
Following the deadline, Pauline's solicitors applied for an eviction notice, but Jenny has refused to sell her home, instead sending a barrage of emails and letters to the court, claiming her neighbour was wrong.
She went as far as sticking a sign on the front door which stated that any attempt to evict her was invalid and that it was harassment.
After being removed, Jenny kept ringing the doorbell and asked to be let back in, saying: "They've changed the locks and won't let me back in.
"How can I be evicted for something I haven't done?
"I have got nowhere else to go. This is my home and my property.
"I have had five years of this rubbish. I am really upset by the whole thing. I have been put through hell by that b**** next door."
Pauline's solicitor, Anna Curtis, previously stated that while Jenny feels 'she is not liable for these debts', she didn't do much to find an alternative.
"There has been no discussion or offer of settlement, no suggestion of refinancing or obtaining equity on the property. There has been no proper response in relation to the claim," the legal expert said.
Anna said that there was more than enough in the property's value to pay her debt and buy a comfortable retirement property, mortgage free, and even have some leftover money.
At his judgement for the final appeal in September, Judge Fentem said: "This is a very long-running boundary dispute. The defendant (Jenny Field) has, in various ways, sought to relitigate the original case."
He added that her case centred around the fact that 'the original fence was a boundary fence and that it was entirely on her land'.
The judge noted that all relitigation attempts have failed, as she claimed that 'some form of fraud has taken place', which he noted had no basis or proof behind it.
He concluded: "I have no confidence at all the claimant (Pauline Clark) will be paid what she is owed except by an order for sale.
"This matter needs resolution, the parties need to find a way of putting the entirety of this dispute behind them."
Joshua Nair