Maria Flach is accused of playing the ‘deafening’ drums by Celia Tan who lives in the house on the right (Picture: Champion News)
A pair of warring neighbours have ended up in court in a row about guttering.
Robert and Helena Flach accused Celia Tan of ripping out guttering that she claimed leaked into her garden in Ruislip, west London.
Ms Tan claims the guttering overhangs the border between their homes by a matter of inches. The Flachs say the boundary is five inches beyond the wall between their houses, meaning the guttering is wholly on their land.
As a result, they are suing her at Central London County Court for tresspass and want her to hand over nearly £2,000 for repairs.
Ms Tan is counter-suing for tresspass, encroachment and damage and wants them to pay her £85,000 because of the reduction of value to her home.
As part of the claim, she has accused the Flachs’ daughter of playing drums at a deafening level while they were at church on Sunday mornings.
Ms Tan also wants to get an injunction against the Flachs preventing them from putting CCTV near to her home.
Helena and Robert Flach pictured outside the Central London County Court (Picture: Champion News)
The lawyer for the Flachs said Maria played dampened drums (Picture: Champion News)
The row centres on guttering between the two properties and where the boundary lies (Picture: Champion News)
But the Flachs’ barrister Adam Swirsky said this CCTV focused on their own garden and not on Ms Tan’s.
He said: ‘They are entitled to have CCTV – this may be thought prudent given the criminal behaviour order made against Ms Tan.’
Ms Tan and her daughter Rebecca Edge moved into their two-bedroom home, next to the Flachs’ £1.2million home in October 2009, and the neighbours are also in a dispute about fences in the front and rear garden.
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Mr Swirsky accused Ms Tan of ‘gradually over time moving your boundaries at the front and at the back further over into the Flachs’ property’.
This is a claim that she denies.
Ms Edge gave evidence about the drumming and said: ‘She would play for 40 minutes per day on average.’
But Mrs Flach replied: ‘Maria was at the local school where she was playing drums. She was sitting her grade five exams and needed practice time.’
She said her daughter played on a set of ‘dampened’ drums no more than once a week and this lowered noise.
Celia Tan, pictured with her daughter Rebecca, is counter-suing (Picture: Champion News)
The Flachs eventually got rid of their drum kit, it was claimed, because Ms Tan would bang on the walls with ‘spades and other implements’.
Ms Tan’s barrister told the court: ‘Her position is that the guttering was a trespass and, moreover, leaked and was causing damage to her property.
‘Her position is that the claimants configured their house so all the rainwater on the back of the house flowed along that guttering.
‘She blocked that off so there was no further water coming onto her property.’
Judge Alan Saggerson took issue with the cost of the litigation and said: ‘I know this is all very vexing for the neighbours, but we are talking about inches.’
But Ms Tan’s barrister said: ‘We are talking about inches, but nonetheless we are in a position where they have fallen out and it is causing arguments and it does have to be resolved.
‘The claimants say they own all of the wall of their garage and also a little strip of land beyond it, to which they don’t have any access.
‘It causes arguments. It may only be inches but unfortunately, absent a negotiated settlement, it matters. Unfortunately, we are where we are.’
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Mr Swirsky also said Ms Tan previously clashed with the couple and other neighbours and was handed a criminal behaviour order after being convicted of harassment following a trial in 2016.
During that trial, she was accused of constantly complaining about parking and calling traffic wardens.
She also took film footage from her bedroom window and in the street and called other neighbours ‘scum’.
The trial continues.
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