Couple face home demolition after dispute with neighbor who swims naked in her garden pond

An elderly Austrian couple who have lived in the same house for 44 years have received a demolition notice for their home after a dispute with their neighbor who likes to swim naked in her garden pond.

Anton Kreilinger, 74, and his wife, Berta, 70, from Mining in Upper Austria say that they received a demolition notice from the local council on Monday, ordering that the house they have lived in since 1971 has to be knocked down within four months as it contravenes planning laws. "Our house is allegedly too close to the neighbor's property.
"We believe our neighbor instigated this after we had a row with her about our hedge,” Mr Kreilinger said. Their neighbor likes to swim in the nude in her garden and had deliberately let the hedge between the two properties get overgrown so that she couldn’t be seen. However, it was blocking out the Kreilinger’s sunlight so they trimmed it back.

The couple received planning permission for their house in 1968 but then, after agreement with their former neighbors, changed the original plans without reapplying for permission. In 2005 building experts noted that the distance between the house and the bordering property is two rather than three meters. The house also has a gabled roof which measures 26.8 meters, not the permitted 15 meters.