A COUPLE are losing their dream retirement home after racking up a £500,000 legal bill in a row with a farmer over where he put his bins.
Geoff Carter, 76, and his wife Corinne, 69, who is battling cancer, say they are effectively bankrupt and facing homelessness after losing a battle with neighbour Trevor Goldsworthy.
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The couple have put their £450,000 dream home on the market to cover their legal bills.
He said: “It’s absolutely destroyed us, we have got nothing left. We’ve lost half a million pounds.
“All we wanted was a quiet life and a nice view but we’ve lost this house, it’s gone, it’s already on the market.
“I’m getting on for 80, my wife’s getting on for 70, we’ve had a house since 1973 and now we’re totally f****. We can’t start working again, we’re too old now. We have nothing but our state pensions.”
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Mr Goldsworthy confirmed to The Sun the case was over and the courts had found in his favour but declined to comment on the outcome.
The Carters swapped their Buckhurst Hill, Essex, home for a cottage in rural west Cornwall in 2018 after falling in love with the area while on holiday.
But within weeks of buying the property they had fallen out with farmer Mr Goldsworthy over where he left rubbish for weekly bin collections.
The Carters claimed the rubbish – left across the road from their house – stopped them from accessing their drive and attracted flies.
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The row escalated to the point where the neighbours ended up in court – where Mr Goldsworthy was found to be in the right.
As part of the row between the neighbours, Mr Goldsworthy’s son Simon was seen on CCTV using a telehandler to pick up and move Mr Carter’s Skoda Fabia from outside his home.
Mr Carter sought compensation through the courts for alleged damage to the car but that was also rejected.
An appeal at Bristol Crown Court failed, leaving the Carters liable for both sides’ full legal costs, at which point Mr Goldsworthy arranged for the rubbish to be collected elsewhere anyway.
Mr Carter said: “If we hadn’t put so much into this home we would have sold up long ago and moved on but we were just trapped by it and the further the case went on the harder it was to back out as we would have been liable for all their costs anyway.”
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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk
