AN elderly widow’s 11-year boundary dispute with a former neighbour will come to an end with her home being sold from under her feet – potentially for only a quarter of its true value.

Milica Markos’s troubles began in 1999 when, recovering from leukaemia and the recent death of her husband, she became embroiled in a dispute with her then neighbour, Alan Goodfellow.

She took him to court, where a judge ruled he had wrongly knocked down her fence and built a concrete drive on her land. But he ordered she foot the bill of Mr Goodfellow’s approximately £10,000 legal costs.

She failed to pay and, eventually, another court order was made, requiring the property to be sold to reimburse Mr Goodfellow for the court costs.

Again she did not pay up and, in June 2006, a writ of possession was issued over the four-bedroom house in Glenbervie Drive, Leigh.

Lord Justice Lloyd, sitting at the Court of Appeal in London, said it was right the house be sold, even with Mrs Markos, now approaching 80 years old, still in residence.

Upholding a previous county court ruling, he said the reduced value of the property – if sold with her still there – meant a minimum sale price of just £80,000 was legitimate.

Mrs Markos’ son, Nicholas, attended the court to argue the minimum price for the property, at one point valued at around £280,000, was far too low.

But Lord Justice Lloyd said: “Mrs Markos’s liability for Mr Goodfellow’s costs cannot be questioned in principle, nor as to the amount, both of them having been decided by the proper process and unsuccessfully challenged on appeal.”