A pensioner forced to sell her cliff-top house for £5 to the National Trust is still waiting to receive the meagre payment five months after the sale.

Elizabeth Lazareno's home was demolished because it was teetering on the edge of a cliff and in danger of falling into the Channel.

The house was the nearest to the sea on a terraced row at Birling Gap, near Beachy Head, Eastbourne.

The National Trust, which owns most of the surrounding land, offered to pay for the demolition, about £30,000, and buy the house for a fiver.

But while it did complete the destruction and clearing of the house last Easter, it has yet to pay her the cash.

Other owners were outraged that they were offered such a measly sum and refused to sell their property.Couple's house call An elderly couple made an unexpected call on a neighbour when their car careered through the wall of her bungalow.

Harold and Bunty Secrett were going to their doctor's surgery when Mr Secrett's automatic Citreon shot across the road, through a garden wall and crashed into the front of the house opposite.

The scene was one of devastation yesterday afternoon with rubble, bricks, shattered glass and car parts strewn across the street.

Mr and Mrs Secrett freed themselves from their car without a scratch after the accident in Lowther Road, Worthing, at 1.50pm.

Mr Secrett, 82, who was driving, said: "It all happened in a fraction of a second.

"My car was parked as it always is on the sloping drive and the only thing I can think happened was my foot slipped from the brake on to the accelerator.

"Luckily we had our seat belts on and we managed to scramble out before the police got there.

"It's unbelievable. We're feeling a bit rough now. It's a rotten experience.

"It's a very antisocial thing to do, damaging somebody else's house. At least it was empty."

Mrs Secrett, 84, said: "It's a real shock and a shame.

"We were going to the doctors and then on for lunch.

"We've lost our appetites since this happened."

Police and fire crews arrived at the scene and declared the building to be structurally unsound.

PC Mark Ryan said: "I was first to arrive and there was nobody around. I was told by neighbours it was the couple's car who live opposite.

"I went over there and they were very shaken.

"The paramedics had checked them out but they refused to go to hospital.

"He must have been doing about 20mph to have crashed into the house like this.

"Sometimes elderly people think they are touching the brake when they are actually keeping their foot on the throttle."

The owner of the house, who did not wish to be named, was too upset to talk. When she returned home and saw the damage she burst into tears.

Next-door neighbour Lillian Bowen said: "I was asleep when I was woken by lots of banging.

"I'm in shock. We don't often have things like this happen round here."

Another neighbour said: "Mr and Mrs Secrett are a really nice couple. I'm glad they're okay."

Police have arranged for the bungalow to be boarded up.

One of those was Richard Worsell, who has offered to pay Mrs Lazareno so he can extend the size of his land, which is now closest to the sea.

Mr Worsell, 62, who was awarded the MBE after serving 40 years as an auxiliary coastguard, said: "I would pay Mrs Lazareno the fiver owed as that would make my land bigger.

"Surely, the National Trust's solicitor should have paid the money when the sale of the house went through? They have made a bungle."

The late 19th Century cottage was only ten feet away from the cliff and used by Mrs Lazareno, 95, as a holiday home.

The houses were once worth £75,000 each. For years, the residents battled to save the terraced row. They campaigned for a sea barrier to stop the cliff from eroding but a public inquiry ruled any protection would be fruitless and expensive.

Mrs Lazareno's son Sebastian said: "It is true they haven't paid the five pounds but the amount is so trivial I haven't even bothered chasing the matter up.

"The National Trust made as reasonable an offer as it could. It undertook all the expenses of the demolition and paid to have the place cleared. A fiver is neither here nor there."

The National Trust would not comment.