ESTATE AGENT LOSES HEDGE BOUNDARY CASE AGAINST NEIGHBOUR

An estate agency boss, Sarah Douglas, has lost a High Court challenge over a costs order linked to a boundary dispute with her neighbour, Ronald Channon, a former rally driver and insurance executive, according to court documents. Douglas, who bought her hilltop house overlooking the coastline of Torquay in 2017, now faces paying more than £200,000 of Channon's legal costs in addition to her own, the documents show. The dispute centred on the position of a boundary between the two properties after a hedge dividing them was removed. Channon, who paid £1.4m for the neighbouring house in June 2021, argued the boundary should run along the line of the original hedge's stems, placing a newly erected fence on his land. Douglas argued the boundary should follow the line of the hedge's outer leaf growth, which would have placed the fence in her garden.

A judge at Plymouth County Court ruled in Channon's favour in 2025, finding that a boundary defined by the outer edge of a hedge would be impractical, since it would shift depending on how overgrown the hedge became at any given time. Judge Paul Mitchell described the case as a "tragedy" and said the dispute should not have reached the stage it did, given the stress and cost involved for both sides, according to the court record. He described both parties as "strong characters". The case followed an earlier dispute Douglas had with a previous neighbour, who removed the original hedge before later moving out, the court documents state.

Douglas subsequently challenged the costs order at the High Court, seeking to avoid paying the bulk of Channon's legal fees, but that challenge was unsuccessful, according to the ruling. She now faces a combined bill exceeding £200,000 for her neighbour's costs, on top of her own legal expenses from the years-long dispute. No further legal steps have been confirmed in the case.