PAUL´S NEIGHBOURS BLOW NEARLY HALF A MILLION POUNDS ON LEGAL BATTLE OVER LEAKY GUTTER THAT WOULD HAVE COST JUST £7,000 TO FIX

• Neighbours of former Beatle get on with star but took each other to court
• Widow in his street claims her neighbour's leaky gutter damaged her home
• Neighbour insisted the problem was caused by wisteria and not his gutter
• Judge finds in favour of widow and orders neighbour to pay £250,000

Paul's rich neighbours have blown nearly half a million pounds fighting over a leaky gutter that would have cost just £7,000 to fix.

Multi-millionaire property tycoon Brenda Fenton - who lives next door to the former Beatle - has been at war for years with surveyor, Clive Lewis, whose £20million mansion adjoins her own listed home.

The trouble between the pair centres on water overflowing from a blocked gutter on an extension at the back of Mr Lewis's house and creating a damp problem in Mrs Fenton's mansion next door.

Now a county court judge has ordered Mr Lewis to alter his house and pay his neighbour £250,000 in costs and damages, leaving him facing an estimated total bill for the dispute approaching half a million pounds.

A row broke out between the owners of these two west London mansions over a £7,000 leaky gutter

The owners of the properties, which neighbour Paul's home, ended up going to court over the dispute and paid hundreds of thousands in legal fees

The court heard that wealthy widow Mrs Fenton, 84, moved into her home in St John's Wood, West London, 35 years ago.

Sir Paul lives next door, in a house not far from the famous Abbey Road studios.

Both Mrs Fenton and Mr Lewis are friends with the former Beatle, Judge Edward Bailey told Central London County Court, commenting that Mrs Fenton 'enjoyed an excellent relationship with her famous neighbour.'

However the court heard that the relationship between Mrs Fenton and Mr Lewis is less friendly, and that since he bought his house in the late 1990s, she has been 'embroiled in a number of disputes' with him.

Caroline Shea, for Mrs Fenton, told the judge that the dispute between the neighbours sprang out of a long-standing gripe about defective guttering on a glass-roofed extension to the back of the Lewis' palatial house.

The extension, built in 1997, had inadequate guttering when it was put up, which Mr Lewis had also allowed to become blocked with leaves and other debris, the barrister said, causing damp problems in the day room, kitchen and garage of Mrs Fenton's own mansion.

Brenda Fenton (left) insisted the extension of neighbour Clive Lewis (right) was ruining her own home

Miss Shea told the judge: 'Mrs Fenton is an elderly widow who has occupied her house for 35 years. 

She added: 'Mrs Fenton seeks injunctive relief requiring Mr and Mrs Lewis to rebuild the roof of the extension in such a way as to prevent rainwater running down to collect in the gutter and thence penetrating into [her home].'

Philip Byrne, for Mr Lewis, denied that Mr Lewis had caused a 'nuisance' to his neighbour and dismissed expert reports linking the damp in Mrs Fenton's home to the gutter as 'erroneous.'

The barrister said that Mr Lewis and his wife Marsha, an interior designer, put the blame for the malfunctioning guttering on Mrs Fenton's own wisteria plant, which they claimed was causing the blockage, and which was none of their responsibility.

But Judge Bailey branded the extension as 'bog standard' and not in keeping with an area famed for its celebrity residents.

He found the gutter had been blocked by lack of maintenance and obstructed by pipes carrying water to and from a swimming pool.

Paul lives next to the warring pair in this home and is said to be friends with both of them

The judge said: 'Since Mr Lewis acquired [her home] she has found herself embroiled in a number of disputes, which must have been very trying for a lady of 84 years of age,' he went on.

'Mrs Fenton first noticed damp in 2003 and raised the question of damp with Mr Lewis in 2011, and proceedings were launched in 2014. She suffered damp in two of the most important rooms in her house and her troubles are not yet over.'

Criticising Mr Lewis, the judge said: 'Any responsible householder knows that gutters get blocked. It is unacceptable that, having built a gutter right against his neighbour's wall, Mr Lewis didn't have a system of maintenance.

'Mr Lewis has shown himself to be incapable of maintaining the guttering, even when it was clear that this litigation had been commenced,' he added.

Paul's home is separated from the two homes in the case and was he was not involved in the case

Of the extension the judge said: 'This was a bog standard construction, not of good quality for a terraced house in Clapham, a semi-detached in Ealing and certainly not in line with the quality of this detached house in St John's Wood, which has been valued, modestly, at £20million.'

Dismissing Mr Lewis's attempt to blame Mrs Fenton's wisteria he said: 'I reject that argument - I don't accept that the wisteria was the primary cause of the blockage at the rear of the gutter.

'It was substantially cut back from time to time and I don't accept that it could have contributed to blocking the gutter by growing into it.'

The judge ordered Mr Lewis to pay his neighbour £27,000 damages to repair her house, plus £50,000 for loss of amenity.

He also granted an injunction, compelling Mr Lewis to have his extension roof reconstructed and re-angled so that rainwater pours towards his own property, not the house next door.

Mr Lewis was ordered to pay Mrs Fenton over £170,000 for her legal costs. His own lawyers bill is likely to be a similar sum.

The judge concluded by saying that it would have cost Mr Lewis about £7,000 to get a contractor to fix the leaky gutter, and thus avoid the costly court case.

Mrs Fenton said outside court afterwards 'I'm just very happy that, after years of litigation, I've won.'