An 87-Year-Old Former Rally Driver Won a Five-Year Fight Over Where a Torquay Hedge Stood, Leaving His Neighbor With a £108,402 Upfront Bill

The hedge between 41 and 43 Mead Road in Torquay, Devon, has been gone since 2018, yet it took a High Court judge to settle where it stood. On Oct. 2, Mr Justice Linden dismissed Sarah Douglas’s appeal and left in place a ruling for her neighbor, 87-year-old former rally driver Ronald Channon, according to the published judgment. Douglas must pay 70% of his legal costs, and the first £108,402 was due upfront.

The two homeowners have been in a boundary fight since Channon bought next door in 2021. The Press News Agency described it as a dispute that dragged on for five years.

The Hedge That Disappeared in 2018

Douglas, 57, is managing director of the South Hams estate agency Marchand Petit. She bought No. 43, a hilltop home with sea views, in 2017 for £700,000, according to Property Industry Eye. A year later, the then-owner next door took out the hedge that divided the two gardens and later moved away.

Channon paid £1.4 million for the neighboring house in 2021. Newshub reported that he put up a fence along the strip where the hedge had stood, and that Douglas said part of it sat on her land.

The Press News Agency said Channon competed in the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally, finishing 14th among 98 entrants, before spending decades in insurance. He trained as a marine engineer.

Stems or Southernmost Leaf

The case turned on a question that sounds almost silly: where does a boundary run when the plant that marked it is gone? Property Industry Eye reported that Channon argued the line followed the hedge’s stems, while Douglas argued it reached the hedge’s “southernmost leaf,” which would have put the fence inside her garden.

Judge Paul Mitchell at Plymouth County Court rejected the foliage approach, the outlet said, because a line tied to leaves would shift every time the hedge grew or was trimmed. According to the High Court judgment, he found the hedge’s ownership passed with No. 43 but that the boundary ran along the outer edge of its growers, which he called “relatively thin stems.”

Douglas had also claimed the hedge helped stabilize the stepped bank between the homes. She asked for ownership of the strip, an injunction and damages over the bank, Property Industry Eye reported. Those claims were dismissed, along with a £200,000 counterclaim from Channon for lost property value, harassment and nuisance.

The judgment shows how small the gap was. Judge Mitchell found that the surveyor’s line differed from the outer-edge line by “a matter of mere millimetres or de minimis,” and he called the boundary “by far and away the stand-out issue in the case.”

On appeal, Douglas was given permission to argue only two grounds, one on the boundary and one on costs. Mr Justice Linden dismissed both. On the boundary, he held that the difference between the lines was a question of fact the trial judge was entitled to find immaterial after hearing the evidence and visiting the site, the judgment said. The appeal was heard on July 29 and the ruling was handed down on Oct. 2.

How £108,402 Became the First Payment

The county court orders came on Aug. 26 and Sept. 5, 2025. The judgment records that Douglas was told to pay 70% of Channon’s costs, subject to a detailed assessment, plus £108,402 on account.

The judge reasoned that Channon was “undoubtedly” the successful party on the claim, while Douglas won against the counterclaim. He treated that as a reason to apportion rather than split the bill, deducting 30% for the counterclaim, and noted “intransigence on both sides,” according to the judgment. Linden agreed the costs discretion had been properly used.

Property Industry Eye reported that Channon’s costs are estimated at more than £300,000 and that Douglas’s eventual contribution could exceed £200,000. Final figures depend on the assessment.

What Each Neighbor Says Now

Channon told the Press News Agency that he will still be out of pocket, with an expected net loss of at least £100,000. He said he offered £5,000 to end the dispute and hired lawyers only after a £50,000 demand arrived two years into the row. He said a face-to-face talk could have solved it, adding that “it would have all been resolved over a bottle of wine.”

The agency said Douglas had not responded to requests for comment when it published. Newshub and Property Industry Eye reported the story on Oct. 8 and 9, and the Oct. 2 High Court decision is the latest ruling in the case.

Newshub reported that the judge called the row “a tragedy” and described the two homes as sitting in “what might be called an idyllic position,” but said the conflict had damaged the owners’ enjoyment of them. Property Industry Eye quoted him calling it “a wholly unfortunate dispute which, from any objective viewpoint, should plainly not have got to this point.” He described both neighbors as “strong characters with strong views, forthrightly expressed.”

Why Boundary Lines Are Often Unrecorded

The case is a reminder of how rarely the exact line is written down. The UK government’s property boundaries guidance says that in England or Wales there is usually no record of the exact boundary between two properties, and that most title plans do not show exact lines. Neighbors can record a line through a boundary agreement or apply for a determined boundary.

For Mead Road, the line is now settled by a court. For the two neighbors, the bill is still being worked out.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: David Smith – CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikimedia Commons