An Essex couple, Philip and Denise New, have been left facing a court bill of around £130,000 after losing a 14-year dispute with their neighbours, Steve and Karen Gibson, over roughly six inches of garden along a shared fence. The row, which also involved a "sentimental" ornamental squirrel and demeaning YouTube songs, reached the High Court in London last week when the News challenged a £9,500 damages award. The couple say they have been forced to remortgage their home to cover the costs, illustrating how a minor boundary disagreement between neighbours in semi-detached properties can escalate into ruinous litigation.

The dispute began in 2012 when Mr New replaced old fence panels that had become overgrown with weeds; the Gibsons argued the fence was wrongly positioned and that the News were trespassing on their land. The News maintain the fence had stood in the same spot for more than 15 years and that they simply reused the original cement posts. The two sides agreed to appoint an independent surveyor in 2015 to fix the boundary, but the News disputed the resulting line and sought a second opinion, and the Gibsons then sued in 2018. In 2021 a judge ruled in the Gibsons' favour, upholding the first surveyor's boundary line, and the couple now face the £9,500 award plus around £120,000 in legal costs. The neighbouring homes are in Sunnymede Close, Thundersley, and their gardens are now divided by parallel fences.