Desperate homeowner who destroyed £150k property loses everything

A desperate homeowner who tried to dismantle his house after he exploded in frustration following a long-running dispute with a tenant has ‘lost everything’ after the property was repossessed. 

Louis Scudder, 53, was forced to give up his childhood home which has now been sold off at auction. 

The three bedroom home had been left in a shocking state of disrepair for nearly a year after Mr Scudder launched into a frenzied one-man demolition mission. 

Mr Scudder was at the centre of a 24-hour stand-off with police in riot gear last August after he began destroying the end of terrace house – starting with the roof. 

Friends told how Mr Scudder snapped after reaching the end of his tether following a 17-year battle to take back control of his £150,000 property in Sheerness, Kent, which he became convinced had been ‘stolen from him’. 

After a series of court battles the property was put up for sale by the bank with whom he had taken out a mortgage. 

The house had a reserve price of £115,000 when it was put up for sale by estate agents Barnard Marcus at an auction at the Grand Connaught Rooms in central London in April. 

It sold for £134,000 and is believed to have been purchased by a property developer. 

The sale catalogue pointed out that auctioneers had not been able to inspect the freehold home and that purchasers would have to ‘rely upon their own enquiries as to the internal layout of the property’. 

No viewings were conducted and auctioneers explained ‘no keys will be provided to the property upon completion. The property was being sold ‘by order of the mortgagees’. 

Neighbours – who were ordered to evacuate their homes during Mr Scudder’s rampage – told how they are now hoping the house can be made habitable again and they can return to their peaceful lives.   

Tanya Gray, who has lived in the streets for 28 years, told MailOnline: ‘It was a lovely house but he completely wrecked it. 

‘He wanted to get the house back but he went about it the wrong way and now he’s ended up losing it because the bank took it and put it up for auction. He’s lost everything.’ 

Tanya, 58, added: ‘The house has been in a terrible state ever since. It’s a real eyesore. 

‘Before it went up for sale his friends were regularly going into the property but there has been no one since it went up for auction. 

‘No-one was allowed to go inside to view it because it was classed as unsafe. We’ve heard someone from London has bought it. They must be planning to do it up. Good luck to them. 

There must be even more damage now because it’s been left open to the elements for nearly a year. Hopefully that’s the end of it. This is a family-orientated area and it would be nice if a nice quiet family will move in now.’ 

Mr Scudder took matters into his own hands after growing increasingly frustrated that he had been unable to live in his property. 

Fearing the authorities were against him in March last year, Mr Scudder waited for long-term tenant Ayshea Kramer, 51, to go out before climbing in through a window to gain entry. 

He removed her possessions and dumped them outside before changing the locks but was ordered by a court to quit the property and hand back the keys. 

As a legal battle rumbled on, Mr Scudder returned to the property in June last year where he began ripping tiles off the roof and smashing windows with his bare hands – leaving himself covered in blood. 

He was arrested and was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months for causing a public nuisance and breaching an injunction. 

Two months later, he returned with a sledgehammer to finish the job. Neighbours told how at the end of the terrifying rampage Mr Scudder left behind a scene of devastation they likened to ‘a disaster movie’. 

Officers in riot gear were drafted in while specially trained negotiators tried to coax him down from the rafters of his wrecked property. 

Ambulance crews and fire fighters were also called in amid fears damage to pipes and cables could cause an explosion. 

Walls came crashing down and pipe work was shattered as Mr Scudder rained blow after blow on the property reducing brickwork to piles of rubble. 

At the time Danny Owen – who has lived in the street for more than a year – told MailOnline: ‘He got on the roof and started tearing the house to pieces. He did it twice. The first time he tore the whole roof down with his bare hands. He smashed all the tiles. He was ripping them off and was throwing them. 

‘He punched the windows with his hands which were all cut and bloodied. There was scaffolding put up after that as attempts were made to fix the roof. ‘He wasn’t happy with it and he went up there again and wrecked the place. 

‘All I heard him say was ‘I’m not coming out until I take this whole place apart – brick by brick. He said he was going to destroy the house. It’s his family home. He grew up there. He owns it but he hasn’t been allowed to live there.  

‘He says he tried to do things properly but in the end he felt helpless as everything always went in her favour. He demolished all the inside. He smashed up the bathroom and there was a worry because of all the pipework that was damaged. There was water leaking. 

‘There’s been this long dispute with the tenant which has ended in a long legal fight. He reached breaking point and it ended with this. I feel sorry for him. He went about it the wrong way. It’s very sad. He’s hit rock bottom. He thought the authorities let him down and he had a genuine grievance. 

‘He should have gone about it differently but he obviously wasn’t thinking like that.’ 

Another neighbour said: ‘His attitude seemed to be ‘If I can’t have my house, you can’t have it either’ so he set out to demolish it. He went up there on the Wednesday and he didn’t come down until Thursday evening.’ 

In the aftermath of the rampage Mr Scudder said: ‘I feel like an injured fox being hounded. No-one’s listening to me. I’m so angry inside.’ 

One friend of Mr Scudder told MailOnline: ‘This has destroyed this man’s life. He’s a broken man and it’s not fair how he’s been treated.’ 

After one of Mr Scudder’s court appearances last year, friends told how the property had been his childhood home which he went on to buy from the council. 

One friend told how Mr Scudder was forced to leave the house for a number of years after finding himself in ‘a challenging personal situation’. 

He asked a relative to arrange for it to be rented out to help him pay off his mortgage. 

But Mr Scudder claims that unbeknown to him a 25-year tenancy agreement had been signed. 

In 1999 Ms Kramer moved into the property and it was there that she brought up her three daughters – twins aged 27 and their older sister who is now aged 31. 

The friend claimed Mr Scudder only discovered about the terms of the tenancy in 2007. 

The friend said: ‘During all those years he’s been homeless. He’s been jumping from friend to friend, living in spare bedrooms, on sofas. If friends had motorhomes he would stay there for a couple of months, he stayed on boats – anywhere he could find. He’s a man with a home that’s homeless. It’s ridiculous. 

‘He’s the loveliest man you could ever meet. He just wants a quiet life. His dream in life which he was hoping this house could help him do was to buy a small piece of land and rescue animals. 

Friends of Ms Kramer told how she has been left traumatised by the experience – losing her home and most of her possessions including treasured family photographs. 

But Tobe Hayden, who assisted Mr Scudder in previous legal actions, said: ‘I didn’t know the house had been repossessed. I was assisting him for a while but then they went in a different direction. It was a terrible miscarriage of justice for him.’