article_snippet: The trouble between the pair centres on water overflowing from a blocked gutter on an extension at the back of Mr Lewis's house and creating a damp problem in Mrs Fenton's's mansion next door.
article_snippet: Caroline Shea, for Mrs Fenton's, told the judge that the dispute between the neighbours sprang out of a long-standing gripe about defective guttering on a glass-roofed extension to the back of a house.
article_snippet: The extension, built in 1997, had inadequate guttering when it was put up, which Mr Lewis's had also allowed to become blocked with leaves and other debris, Mr Lewis's said, causing damp problems in the day room, kitchen and garage of Mrs Fenton's own mansion.
article_snippet: Mrs Fenton's added: 'Mrs Fenton's seeks injunctive relief requiring Mr and Mr Lewis's to rebuild the roof of the extension in such a way as to prevent rainwater running down to collect in the gutter and thence penetrating into [Mrs Fenton's home].' Philip Byrne, for Mr Lewis's, denied that Mr Lewis's had caused a 'nuisance' to Mr Lewis's neighbour and dismissed expert reports linking the damp in Mrs Fenton's home to the gutter as 'erroneous.'
article_snippet: The barrister said that Mr Lewis's and Mr Lewis's wife Marsha, an interior designer, put the blame for the malfunctioning guttering on Mrs Fenton's own wisteria plant, which Mr Lewis and his wife Marsha, an interior designer, put the blame for the malfunctioning guttering on Mrs Fenton's own wisteria plant, which they claimed was causing the blockage, and which was none of their responsibility claimed was causing the blockage, and which was none of Mr Lewis and his wife Marsha, an interior designer, put the blame for the malfunctioning guttering on Mrs Fenton's own wisteria plant, which they claimed was causing the blockage, and which was none of their responsibility responsibility.
article_snippet: But Judge Bailey branded the extension as 'bog standard' and not in keeping with an area famed for the extension celebrity residents.
article_snippet: Judge Bailey found the gutter had been blocked by lack of maintenance and obstructed by pipes carrying water to and from a swimming pool.
article_snippet: Criticising Mr Lewis's, Judge Bailey said: 'Any responsible householder knows that gutters get blocked.
article_snippet: It is unacceptable that, having built a gutter right against his neighbour's wall, Mr Lewis's didn't have a system of maintenance. '
article_snippet: Mr Lewis's has shown Mr Lewis's to be incapable of maintaining the guttering, even when it was clear that this litigation had been commenced,' Mr Lewis's added.
article_snippet: Of the extension Judge Bailey said: 'This was a bog standard construction, not of good quality for a terraced house in Clapham, a semi-detached in Ealing and certainly not in line with the quality of this detached house in St John's Wood, which has been valued, modestly, at £20million.'
article_snippet: so that rainwater pours towards Mr Lewis's own property, not the house next door.