Carole Anne Green, who has fought with her elderly neighbours for five years, says she will now be forced to sell her home to pay her legal costs

A teacher could end up losing everything after being hit with a £50,000 legal bill over a bitter boundary row with neighbours which saw her fence stray just 15 inches into their land.

Carole Anne Green, who has fought with her elderly neighbours for five years, says she will now be forced to sell her home to pay her legal costs.

A judge previously declined the couple’s request to have the fence pulled down but following a hearing in the Appeal Court Mrs Green was ordered to pay the fees.

She lost her fight when Judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins at Worcester County Court found the fence she had erected alongside an access lane ‘trespassed’ by just more than a foot onto her neighbour's land.

The 58-year-old said: ‘This lawyers’ bill is going to kill me. It’s wiped out 40 years of full time work. I’ll be 60 next year and I’ve got no savings.

‘I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t want to have to rely on the state, I never have. It just beggars belief.’

Mrs Green moved into an exclusive development in the Worcestershire spa town of Malvern, next to the 18th century listed manor where the late Barbara Cartland grew up.

She obtained planning permission to build a holiday let, which she advertises online for extra retirement income.

And once the apartment was built in her garden she found herself in a bitter court battle with her neighbours Doreen and Victor Elliott, who are both in their 80s and lived in their home for more than 25 years.

Mrs Green rowed with the couple over the width of the driveway visitors would use to get to the holiday rental, which also provides access to her own home.

The pensioners set out a row of wooden batons in the ground, claiming they marked the border between their land and Mrs Green’s drive.

But the teacher insisted they had put them in the wrong place and erected a concrete and wooden fence along the line she believed was correct.

In December 2012, Judge Pearce-Higgins found her fence ‘encroached’ onto Mr and Mrs Elliott’s land by 15 inches.

But he declined the couple’s request for an order to pull the fence down, and instead awarded them damages of £2,866.

He said: ‘This is an unhappy case. Like most boundary disputes it has attracted a lot of emotion, it is largely unnecessary and it could have been resolved years ago by a modicum of common sense and a small amount of goodwill.’

Mrs Green has continued to fight her legal costs and called on Lord Justice Jackson at London’s Appeal Court to help her.

However, while sympathising with her, he refused her permission to appeal against the costs.

She told the judge: ‘A £50,000 costs bill for a compensation claim of £2,000 is not proportionate and it’s not reasonable. It’s blatant theft and profiteering.

‘The intention of the claim was to get rid of my fencing.. Trivial silliness. It failed - it was a partially won claim and the bill was 39 pages long.’

A aerial view of Picture shows an aerial view of the Worcestershire spa town of Malvern shows Carole's home, the neighbour's house , the childhood home of Barbara Cartland and the disputed fence

The teacher found herself in a row over a boundaries with her elderly neighbours and she insisted they had put them in the wrong place before erecting a concrete and wooden fence along the line she believed was correct (pictured)

Lord Justice Jackson said: ‘I understand her grievance about the bill of costs...she says that there are so many items that it amounts to fraud or, as she puts it, theft.

‘But she did not comply with the rules and lodge complaints within the proper time. I feel sympathy for her difficulties, but the courts have to observe the rules.

‘At this late stage there is nothing I can do about it. She has lost her chance to dispute her neighbours’ bill of costs.

‘I’m sorry to say that none of her arguments would enable Mrs Green to appeal successfully, and these applications are refused.’

She added that she blames the proximity of the late Mrs Cartland’s home for her troubles.

‘As soon as I got planning permission for my holiday let it all kicked off,’ she said.

‘Just because I got that planning permission in 2008, I’ve had all this because of people worried about development at the bottom of their garden.

There’s all this land next to my house which is landlocked which was part of Barbara Cartland’s home.

I think they were worried that the planning permission and the access to my holiday rental would somehow open the way for development on that land.’

Carole had the modern holiday apartment (pictured) built in her garden, which sparked the dispute with neighbours Doreen and Victor Elliott