A football club president who built a 24ft 'man cave' is embroiled in a £100,000 court dispute with a neighbour who calls it an 'eyesore' and wants it demolished.
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it → build → it
Justin Salmon upset neighbour Andrianna Neophytou after erecting what he has described as a 'den' – featuring a TV, bar, plastered walls, carpeting, furniture and an electric doorbell – at the bottom of his garden in south London in 2018.
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he → upset → 2018
The so-called 'garden room' provided Mr Salmon and wife Karen with extra living space during the Covid-19 lockdowns but he was forced to alter it after his neighbour complained, a court in London has been told.
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court → call → London
She had previously secured a tribunal ruling that the sprawling 'man cave' was in breach of their lease and permission that was given for a pergola and a simple toolshed in the garden.
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that → secure → garden
But she is now suing him in court in a bid to have the structures torn down completely, arguing that work he did to comply with his lease did not go far enough.
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he → sue → lease
Mrs Neophytou says he merely converted the 'cave' into an open-sided outdoor bar on the same footprint, swapping a sign on it saying 'Man Cave' for one reading 'Shed for Domestic Purposes'.
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he → say → Purposes
In a case lawyers expect will run up legal bills worth more than £100,000, Mrs Neophytou is demanding Mr and Mrs Salmon demolish the structures in their garden.
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Salmon → expect → garden
Football club president Justin Salmon and his wife Karen are pictured outside Mayors and City County Court in London after a hearing in a dispute over a 24ft 'man cave' he built
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he → picture → cave
The couple's neighbour Andrianna Neophytou, also seen leaving the court, has branded the structure in Coulsdon, Surrey, an 'eyesore' and is asking a judge to order it be demolished
The couple deny being in breach of the lease, saying that – despite including a bar – the structures now amount to no more than a normal garden shed and pergola.
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structures → see → shed
Sitting at Mayors and City County Court, Judge Nicholas Parfitt was told Mr Salmon lives in a maisonette with his wife, with Mrs Neophytou above the Salmons and her garden behind theirs.
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Salmon → sit → theirs
Mr Salmon is president and senior secretary at non-league Sutton Common Rovers, having previously played for and coached the club that was founded by his father Alan Salmon in 1978.
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that → play → 1978
Mrs Neophytou was approached by Mr Salmon for permission to build a pergola at the bottom of the garden in 2017 and allowed him to do so.
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him → approach → 2017
Once it was built, Mr Salmon then added a shed alongside, before gradually developing the structures until they comprised a roofed garden room.
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they → build → room
This featured UPVC windows and doors, plastered walls, carpeted floors, furniture, and signs saying 'Man Cave' and 'The Den'.
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This → feature → Cave
In the latest court hearing, Mrs Neophytou told the judge how the neighbours fell out badly in 2020, prompting her to bring First-tier Tribunal proceedings.
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neighbours → tell → proceedings
She argued that the 'eyesore' structures were in breach of the Salmons' lease, saying from the witness box: 'When I looked out the back, I had that great big room and marquees and everything else.
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I → argue → room
The so-called 'den' featuring a TV, bar, plastered walls, carpeting, furniture and an electric doorbell was first erected at the bottom of the Salmons' garden in Surrey in 2018
Once it was built, Mr Salmon then added a shed alongside, before gradually developing the structures until they comprised a roofed garden room
'
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they → call → room
There was nothing pleasurable about looking out of my windows and that did upset me.'
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that → be → me
After the earlier tribunal finding that the structures did breach the lease, Mr Salmon said he would do work on the 'den' to make it comply – going on to turn it into an open garden bar.
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it → find → bar
But Mrs Neophytou says what was done was not enough, telling Judge Parfitt: 'It doesn't look like a pergola or a shed now.
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It → say → pergola
Her barrister Dilan Deeljur said a clause of the Salmons' lease prohibits them from having any additional building on the land without written permission, except a shed for domestic purposes.
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clause → say → purposes
He told the judge: 'The claimant accepts that she agreed in 2017 to a basic open wooden pergola.
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she → tell → pergola
'She did not agree to a solid roofed, enclosed, extended, fence-supported or garden-room structure.
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She → agree → structure
Nor did she grant any written licence.
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she → grant → licence
That distinction matters.'
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distinction → matter → ?
He accused the Salmons of only making 'piecemeal' changes without removing the garden room structures.
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He → accuse → structures
For the Salmons, barrister James Culverwell said whatever name is given, the building containing the bar at the bottom of the Salmons' garden was now a 'pergola-type' structure and therefore within the terms of the agreement.
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building → say → agreement
As to the shed alongside it, he added: 'There is no legal definition of "shed", nor any definition in the lease, save that it must be for domestic purposes.
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it → add → purposes
"Shed" is an ordinary, common-sense word meaning "a small building that is used for storing things such as garden tools".
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that → mean → tools
This precisely describes the shed which is in the defendants' garden.
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which → describe → garden
'
Giving evidence himself, Mr Salmon said he had been given the 'man cave' sign as a birthday present and insisted that he had rolled back his garden development so that what remains complies with the lease and the agreement for a pergola.
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remains → give → pergola
He told the judge: 'It's now a shed for domestic purposes and the pergola is back as what was agreed with the claimant.'
The neighbours are also in dispute over a locked porch which Mrs Neophytou had built over steps leading up to her door, with the Salmons claiming they have a right to access the steps themselves.
The judge reserved his ruling on the case until a later date.
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judge → tell → date
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