A former rally driver says he is still likely to lose money despite winning a £200,000 legal battle with his neighbour over a hedge separating their seaside properties.
Ron Channon, 87, told Our News Outlet that he does not expect to receive any financial benefit from High Court and Court of Appeal decisions against estate agency director Sarah Douglas, 57, after spending more than £300,000 on his own legal costs.
The neighbours have spent five years fighting over a narrow strip of land between their homes in Torquay, the Devon resort town.
Mr Channon, who has since become a millionaire, competed in a 1970 World Cup-themed rally between England and Mexico. The event also included England and Tottenham Hotspur football great Jimmy Greaves.
He later spent decades working in insurance, experience he believes helped him navigate the legal action brought against him.
Ms Douglas was ordered last week to pay a £200,000 court bill after losing the dispute over the hedge dividing the neighbours’ homes.
Mr Channon said the pair have met only twice—once before he bought his property and once afterwards. In his view, the lengthy court battle could have been settled simply “over a bottle of wine”.
Speaking after the judgment, he described his frustration at the dispute’s five-year duration and said he expected to be at least £100,000 out of pocket, even after securing victory.
Former rally driver Ron Channon built a fence on land Sarah Douglas claimed belonged to her, the court heard, but he has now prevailed in the boundary dispute
Estate agency boss Sarah Douglas lived in a £700,000 hilltop property praised for its far-reaching “fabulous views” over the Torquay coastline
Mr Channon said: “I have no doubt that if she had acted in a more responsible way when we first met—not once, but twice, face to face—it could all have been resolved over a bottle of wine.
“She happened to take issue with the wrong guy.”
Although he hopes the case has finally reached its conclusion, Mr Channon said the total cost had “certainly” exceeded the figures previously quoted.
He added: “Whether Sarah Douglas will be able to meet her costs obligations without selling her house remains to be seen. Only time will provide that answer.”
Mr Channon said his own legal bill had topped £300,000 and that he expected to remain at least £100,000 down, despite winning on nine findings that were under review.
Ms Douglas moved into her £700,000 hilltop home in 2017. The property was described as enjoying extensive and “fabulous views” across the Devon coastline.
A year later, she became involved in what was described as “an unfortunate boundary dispute” with another neighbour after he removed a hedge.
That neighbour eventually left the property, but the disagreement continued when Ronald Channon, a former rally driver who later became an insurance executive, bought the house next door for £1.4 million in June 2021.
Ronald Channon, the former rally driver and insurance executive, paid £1.4 million for the neighbouring property in June 2021
An aerial view shows Ms Douglas’s home at the top and Mr Channon’s property below
He promptly erected a new fence on what she insisted was ‘her land’, a court heard.
The dispute between the pair, both labelled ‘strong characters’ by a judge, went to court last year.
The case dealt with a disagreement over where the boundary lay between their two high-end properties.
Mr Channon claimed it should run along the line of the stems of the original torn out hedge, meaning the fence would stand on his land.
Ms Douglas said it should follow the line of the hedge’s ‘southernmost leaf’ – meaning it would have been wrongly built in her garden.
She lost the case after a judge ruled a boundary following the outside of the hedge would make no sense because it would change according to how bushy the hedge was at any given time.
Now Ms Douglas has also lost a High Court challenge to an order that she pay most of the legal costs, having to pay more than £200,000 of her neighbour’s lawyers’ fees on top of her own.
Mr Channon, a trained marine engineer who describes himself as a ‘man who has done very well in business’, said he ‘knew the marked boundary where she’d placed stakes was wrong’.
Ms Douglas’s home in the Devon resort town of Torquay, where the judge said the properties occupied ‘what might be called an idyllic position’
A next door property to Ms Douglas was bought by Mr Channon for £1.4million in 2021
The rear view from Sarah Douglas’s home, with the disputed hedge pictured on the right
He added: ‘The hedge was drawn in her original deeds. It’s ridiculous. We just couldn’t find common ground, excuse the pun.’
He says he only hired lawyers two years into the row when sent a demand for £50,000, saying: ‘I’ve never been dominated by lawyers.’
Mr Channon also says he offered £5,000 to end this ‘stupid’ saga, ‘even though I knew she was wrong,’ he added.
He also expressed pleasure at the outcome, despite the costs.
Mr Channon said: ‘I’m actually now looking at my beautiful fence that’s cost me a lot of money – it’s all I wanted to do from the beginning.’
Ms Douglas, appointed chief executive of Devon estate agency Marchand Petit in 2023, has been contacted for comment.
Judge Paul Mitchell, at Plymouth County Court, branded the row a ‘tragedy’, adding: ‘This is a wholly unfortunate dispute which, from any objective viewpoint, should plainly not have got to this point.
‘Clearly it has caused a significant amount of stress and upset, let alone cost.
This is the Ford car driven by Ron Channon in the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally
Tony Fall (left) and Jimmy Greaves (right) are pictured at Wembley ahead of the 1970 rally
‘The properties which the parties respectively occupy are in what might be called an idyllic position, commanding fabulous sea views and should be enjoyed by each party to the maximum.
‘This dispute has substantially impacted upon the pleasure that each has been able to derive from living in what otherwise should have been something bordering idyllic circumstances.’
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Judge Mitchell said that the two houses sit on the same road in Torquay, near the top of a hill affording both far-reaching sea views from their rear gardens, with Ms Douglas’s property to the north of and higher up than the neighbouring site.
In 2018, her then neighbour removed a hedge between the two properties which Ms Douglas insisted belonged to her. She said it had acted to stabilise and retain the stepped-up bank between the two houses.
In 2022, shortly after Mr Channon moved in, he built a new fence along the strip formerly occupied by the hedge but on his side of where the stems had been planted.
The judge said: ‘It is claimed that the removal of the hedge was a trespass; further or alternatively, that the removal constituted a nuisance which has led to instability and it is alleged that Mr Channon has adopted the nuisance and/or the trespass of his predecessor in title.’
He went on to say the row had then snowballed, with Ms Douglas suing for a declaration that she owned the entire strip formerly occupied by the hedge, up to its ‘southernmost leaf’.
She also requested an injunction and damages for the retaining bank being weakened.
Mr Channon had gone on to counter-sue, claiming £200,000 damages for diminution in the value of his house plus ‘harassment and nuisance’ over incidents including Ms Douglas’s dogs getting into his garden and weeds encroaching on his property.
His counter-claim was ultimately dismissed but the judge found in his favour over the boundary line.
The ruling said the fence Mr Channon built was on his own land despite the southern part of the hedge having formerly occupied that space.
Judge Mitchell said: ‘It seems to me where the boundary separating two properties is demarcated by a hedge which belongs within the curtilage of one of the properties, the boundary will run along the outer edge of the growers or trunks or stems.
‘One can easily surmise that the growers were not the width of a tree trunk or anything of that sort. They were relatively thin stems.
‘The boundary is then more or less a fixed point. The practical effect of that on the ground is that the boundary line is the [southerly] outer line of the growers of the hedge.
‘This is a wholly unfortunate dispute, which, from any objective viewpoint, should plainly not have got to this point, but, given that it has, clearly it has caused a significant amount of stress and upset, let alone cost.’
He described both parties as ‘plainly a strong character with strong views, forthrightly expressed’, adding: ‘Each case of this sort is, in its own way, a tragedy.’
He went on to order that the estate agent should pay 70 per cent of her neighbour’s legal bill for the fight, estimated at more than £300,000, with £108,402 up front pending an assessment of the full amount.
Unhappy with that ruling, Ms Douglas went on to challenge it in the High Court.
She argued that she should not have to pay any of her neighbour’s costs, having succeeded in beating his £200,000 counter-claim, and also said the county court judge had blundered by agreeing that the boundary line should now run through the middle of where the stems of the hedge had stood.
Judge Mitchell had found that the exact line of the boundary would be along the southern edge of the hedge’s stems, but had gone on to approve the boundary line being drawn through the middle of where the stems were.
That had been argued for by Mr Channon’s expert surveyor, saying that the difference was a matter of ‘millimetres’ and was so small as to not matter.
On appeal, Ms Douglas objected to this, claiming the judge had wrongly robbed her of a wafer-thin strip of her garden with his decision.
But Mr Justice Linden, in a ruling given last week, said the county court judge had been within his rights to say that the tiny difference didn’t matter.
He said: ‘The question whether the difference between the two lines was de minimis was one of fact for the judge and his finding was based on the evidence.
‘He read, saw and heard all of the evidence and, indeed, undertook a site visit, and his finding was plainly open to him.
‘He found that the growers were relatively thin stems and that the relevant section would therefore be “marginally out by the width, or perhaps half the width, of the growers”, ie. a matter of mere millimetres.
‘The difference between the two lines was, the judge permissibly found, immaterial.
‘The judge was also fully entitled to take the view that it certainly would not justify the continuation of the litigation by requiring the experts to plot what the southern line of growers would have been if the hedge had not been removed in 2018, with the possibility of a further hearing if they were unable to agree.
‘The costs of the litigation were already very substantial.’
Going on to rule against her on the costs issue, Mr Justice Linden said that the main issue had been the position of the boundary and Mr Channon had won that argument.
He added: ‘It is clear that both sides pursued their respective positions robustly. The judge also expressly took into account that there had been intransigence on both sides.’
Ms Douglas has been ordered to pay £108,402 on account of her neighbour’s costs, ahead of an assessment of her full bill at a later date.
Former insurance firm boss Mr Channon, who describes himself as ‘a man made good’, got into rally car driving after joining a racing club in his native Bristol.
He and a colleague travelled for 16,000 miles over 17 days in the London to Mexico World Cup Rally of 1970, with competitors set on their way at Wembley Stadium by England manager Sir Alf Ramsey.
Mr Channon, who came 14th among 98 entrants and just 23 finishers, recalled: ‘I have competed in many international rallies – nothing comes near the WCR.
‘It was the biggest, longest and toughest rally ever devised – certainly the only event I have ever driven in where competitors carried oxygen and masks as we passed over the peak of the Andes.’
Mr Greaves, who died in September 2021 aged 81, participated alongside fellow driver Tony Fall, although Mr Channon suggests that was ‘a PR stunt’.
He said Mr Greaves ‘never drove any of the competitive sections of the rally, but nevertheless it was still a tough call as he still needed to contribute’.
Mr Channon told how competitors including Mr Greaves only got to sleep in a bed once every three nights amid the endurance ordeals they were put through.
His own Ford Cortina GT was sponsored by football club Bristol City as well as being funded by individuals, donating £5 apiece, whose names were listed on the vehicle as a reward.
Mr Channon said of the conditions: ‘It was horrendous at times. The organisers should be put in jail.
‘I was extremely relieved when we finished in the Azteca Stadium after 16,000 miles in 17 days.
‘The “special stages” in Argentina were up to 500 miles at a time – absolutely balls out, breakneck speeds.
‘We had skilled personal mechanics, no one else would have known who they were – that helped us a lot. Our skillset got us there in the end – I remain to this day very proud of that.’
