A decades-long boundary dispute between two pensioners, Angela Coupe and Ian Revell, has been settled in court. The quarrel centered around a quarter of an acre of land, with both parties claiming ownership and accusing each other of encroaching on their territory.
Angela Coupe, 70, asserted that she purchased 1.5 acres of land in 1972, where she kept horses and erected a wooden post along an existing concrete boundary. She claimed that her neighbor, Ian Revell, 66, and his late father had moved the posts in the mid-1990s. Coupe argued that she was entitled to 1.5 acres, while the Revell family had sold a quarter of an acre in 1945, leaving them with 0.77 of an acre.
However, Ian Revell refuted these claims, stating that they were each entitled to one acre of land. He accused Coupe of encroaching by taking half an acre more than she was entitled to. The dispute led to years of animosity between the two families.
The case went to Southern Derby Magistrates Court, where Judge ruled in favor of Ian Revell, rejecting Angela Coupe’s claim of putting up a fence. Coupe expressed dismay at the verdict, while Revell welcomed the decision, stating that the land had been in his family for many years.
Coupe leveled the land she believed she owned and placed the soil within her boundary. She claimed that Revell had trapped the top soil when he moved the fence, affecting her ability to graze her animals, including four rescue pigs. Meanwhile, Revell preferred to leave the land as woodland, expressing that the dispute had prevented his family from grieving the loss of his parents, who were buried nearby.
The dispute had escalated to court in January 2024, and although Angela Coupe lost, she maintained her innocence. She claimed that evidence she presented was not taken into account, and expressed dissatisfaction with the justice system. Coupe said she felt she had been labeled a liar and planned to take a lie detector test to clear her name.
Ian Revell, on the other hand, welcomed the verdict, stating that four separate surveys had confirmed the correct position of his fence. He highlighted the emotional toll the dispute had taken on him and his family, affecting their ability to grieve and visit their parents’ gravesite. Revell estimated that the legal costs had exceeded £20,000 for his family.
Angela Coupe is required to remove her fences by the end of the month, following the court’s ruling. The resolution of this long-standing boundary dispute provides a reminder of the importance of clear boundary establishment and the potential consequences of neglecting such matters.
