A COUPLE who were looking to evict their tenant have been ordered to give him cheap rent for life due to a 92-year-old law.

David and Sheila Harding, of Broomfield Avenue, Peacehaven, bought their next door neighbour Colin Gregory’s three-bedroom house almost 20-years-ago.

Mr Gregory, 68, was struggling with mortgage payments and Mr Harding chose to rent the home back to the him at a cost of £800 a month.

When the couple wanted to sell the house decades later to pay for a plan to live in Spain, Mr Gregory told them he would not leave the house.

The Hardings took him to court to get possession of the £310,000 home.

A judge ordered Mr Gregory to be given a 90-year lease after his lawyer successfully used a law dating from 1925.

The lawyer cited the Bannister v Bannister case, when a woman was given the right to live rent free for life in a cottage she sold to her brother.

Mr Harding, 58, told a national newspaper: “We tried to help out, not only as a good neighbour and landlord, but we considered Colin a good friend.

“We own it, we pay the mortgage on it, we bought it but due to a nearly 100-year-old law he gets to live in it on the cheap. We have nowhere to turn to and can’t believe it has turned out like this.”

The couple were told they cannot increase the rent above the current £800 a month and were refused permission to appeal.

The judge dismissed the case and ordered them to pay Mr Gregory’s costs of £11,000.

The couple can sell the house but only if Mr Gregory’s rent doesn’t increase.