A couple will have to sell their house after being left with a £350,000 bill for cutting down a hedge.

Paul and Janet Derwent, of Groombridge, near Crowborough, will have to sacrifice their £600,000 home of 21 years after losing a legal dispute with neighbour Robert Seeckts.

Mr Derwent, a construction project manager, removed about eight metres of laurel hedge between their two homes in May 2000.

Mr Seeckts, a lawyer, sued the couple at Tunbridge Wells County Court to prove he owned the "boundary features" surrounding his home, Clock House.

Judge David Mitchell ruled in Mr Seeckts' favour and the Court of Appeal in London yesterday upheld the verdict that Mr Seeckts owned the hedge.

Lord Justice Waller, giving the ruling, said he was alarmed by the "astronomical" costs of the appeal hearing, estimated at £100,000.

The Derwents were ordered to pay these costs and those of the county court case.

Lord Justice Carnwath, the second of the appeal judges hearing the case, described the couple's actions in 2000 as "not only unneighbourly but wrong in law".

Stephen Bickford-Smith, barrister for Mr and Mrs Derwent, said they would have to sell their £600,000 home to pay the costs.

The couple, in their 50s, have lived there since 1983.

Lord Justice Carnwath told the court Linden House used to be the stable block of £800,000 Clock House. He said the hedges were clearly defined and a distinct boundary feature when Mr Seeckts bought Clock House in 1968.

The Derwents claimed they were not a boundary but a belt of woodland with no evidence they were a dividing hedge.

Conveyancing documents showed they had to erect cattle-proof fencing between the properties where necessary and maintain hedges.

They were in dispute with Mr Seeckts over the precise measurements given on the plans as to where the boundaries lay - whether it was the hedge or a fence on the Clock House side.

Although the Appeal Court decided Mr Seeckts was the hedge's owner, the case must now return to the county court to determine the exact line of the boundary. The Derwents were ordered to make him an interim payment of £25,000.

Mr Seeckts was also awarded £1,500 in damages at the county court.

Lord Justice Carnwath added: "I understand that the laurel hedge has now substantially regrown."

Mrs Derwent, a teacher, said after the hearing: "We are really pleased the court took time to consider their decision and it has been done professionally."

Mr Derwent confirmed the couple would have to sell their house.

He added: "At least we shall know the true boundaries when we put it on the market."