OWNERS of a 100-year-old cottage will have to pay back Basildon Council £20,000 after they were forced step in and make repairs.

Basildon Council was forced to take action to protect Elizabeth Cottage, in Billericay High Street’s conservation area, after its owners left it open to the elements.

This included repairing damage to the street, making the cottage watertight and putting up scaffolding to support the structure.

Phil Turner, leader of Basildon Council, said the evasive owners, who have been tracked down living in America, will be made to pay back the council for the work.

Mr Turner said: “They will have to come to us to release the property, and to do that they will need to pay us what they owe us for the repairs which have already been carried out, which is now in the region of £20,000.

“We were getting criticised for the time it took us to protect the property from the elements, but we did it as quickly as we possibly could. We had to do it properly, we couldn’t just go in there and do what we wanted.

“Elizabeth Cottage is not in a good way at the moment. It is significantly dilapidated. It’s very sad, it’s a landmark building in a conservation area, which is there for a reason. We’ve taken regenerating Billericay High Street very seriously.

“We’re trying to do what we can to encourage people to shop there.”

The Land Registry lists Ricardo Bucheli, a banker, and Mikiko Bucheli, a lawyer, as owners since November 1996.

The council served legal notices on them, plus Colin Bennett, also known as Edward Bennett, and a Mr Harvey, after the illegal demolition began in early 2014 but was unable to track them down.

Elizabeth Cottage was left to deteriorate for a year after developers began ripping the roof off and trying to demolish it without permission.

The work was halted after the council served a stop notice and secured a civil court injunction, and five months ago councillors voted to use legal powers to allow contractors to enter the building, which is on the site of a Quaker chapel.

A planning application to regenerate the site was granted in 2011 – but this was just for a rear extension and internal work.