Pensioners who spent £100,000 in a failed legal battle to force their neighbours to remove a large lantern have blasted the High Court after losing their appeal. Roger and Margaret Hunt, both 80, launched a private prosecution against their neighbours over a Victorian-style lantern, which Mr and Mrs Hunt insist shone into the bedroom window of their home in Deal, Kent.
And, typically for these cases, it's all someone else's fault that they are now out of pocket.
Mrs Hunt, a retired school teacher, said today: 'This is just us being picked on – we are lucky we have the means to stick up for ourselves in this case.'
Retired accountant Mr Hunt added: 'We were made to pay £6,000 pounds of costs to them after we lost the initial findings. That is very unusual in a statutory nuisance case, you're normally immune.
'But then when we tried to dispute the magistrates' findings – the costs racked up to over £100,000 including our solicitors. 'The stupid thing is we aren't that worried about losing £75,000 - because we're more worried about what they may do next.'
Truly, a fool and their money are soon parted, and hiring solicitors and going to war with neighbours is one of the surest ways to accomplish that!
Their son Jonathan Hunt, who is in his 40s, was forced to retire from teaching classics at Winchester College private school due to chronic health issues and moved in with his parents in 2012.
Jonathan added: 'We clearly don't have infinite supplies of money to bring or defend legal actions. We have not been able to stop harassing acts like their spotlights being flashed at us and wind chimes being wrung out.
'Only our solicitors have been able to get them to stop doing things they've been doing. But we don't have endless money and we don't know what to expect next. We just don't understand them.' Jonathan also slammed the advice his family were given. Mr and Mrs Hunt did not initially get legal representation after reading that their statutory nuisance claim could be resolved in court without a barrister.
*sighs*
3 comments:
Meanwhile the lawyers are ringing their hands like wind chimes in a gale.
I'd be quite interested in hearing the neighbours' views. I am unclear just who is the neighbour from hell.
"Meanwhile the lawyers are ringing their hands like wind chimes in a gale."
Of course! 🤑
"I'd be quite interested in hearing the neighbours' views. I am unclear just who is the neighbour from hell."
Me too. These cases always make me think of that saying about good fences making good neighbours, but then, they often ARE about fences!
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