A couple are facing financial ruin after a row over scaffolding and a religious festival has led to them owing a Hindu temple £62,000.

The two-year legal battle began in 2010 after 60-year-old Olga Nitsche and her husband Alan, 62, of Kenilworth Road in Stoneleigh, erected scaffolding to paint their house which encroached into Dell Lane, a private road owned by 12 properties fronting Stoneleigh Broadway, next to their home.

The Parasakhi Hindu Temple, in Dell Lane, uses the lane every year for a religious festival in which a chariot adorned with images of gods is pulled through the streets accompanied by 3,000 worshippers.

The temple took the couple to court arguing the scaffolding would block the festival route and the couple were ordered to remove the scaffolding and pay the temple initial costs of £2,400, which was increased to £50,000 and now to £62,000 as they are being charged 8 per cent interest.

Mrs Nitchse, a former teacher and PC with Kingston police, said: "I had scaffolding put up because it was 15 years since we redecorated.

"It wasn’t obstructing anybody. If an 8ft lorry could get down there I think their 6ft chariot can."

She claims a breakdown in communications meant they were not informed about court dates leading up to the county court judgement on costs in November 2010, so they had no chance to challenge the claim.

The cash-strapped couple have used up their savings, cashed in endowments and remortgaged their home just to pay their own legal fees of £30,000 and say they don't have the money to pay the temple.

A charging order has now been issued on their house, meaning that if they sell it, the debt will be taken out of the proceeds.

Mrs Nitsche said: "I was so angry. I have never owned anybody money like that.

"If we die it would disappear but while we are still alive, if we were to sell our house we would first have to give them the money.

"It feels like I’m paying rent for my own house. All our endowments have gone to pay solicitors fees. I can’t do anything. It means no holidays and it will be really tight when the bills come in because that’s all our spare money.

"I don’t get a retirement pension until half way through next year. But that was to pay the mortgage. And we have had to remortgage the house to pay the legal fees."

But trustee of the temple Mr Kunasingam, 82, who lives in Bannow Close, Epsom, said he had no sympathy with the couple and that the action had forced the temple to rack up a total of £90,000 in legal fees.

He said: "I don’t feel sorry at all. It was their fault. The money we spent was the temple's. She made us spend so much so she has to compensate.

"The court ruled that she had to pay damages.

"First, she put a wire fence up which was about one foot into the lane and then iron railings which was another two feet. Then they put the scaffolding up.

"We still managed with the iron railings but the scaffolding would have caused us problems."

"The chariot festival is a must for me. It’s a very holy festival. If we couldn’t use Dell Lane we would have to find somewhere else. We could use an alternative road but it would be harder. This is the only route we can take.

"There is no stopping the chariot festival. It’s very important to us as a religious group."

The couple have offered to pay the temple £300 per month indefinitely, the maximum they say they can afford, but the temple has refused their offer.

Mr Kunasingam said: "That doesn’t even cover the interest.

"If she can come up with a £20,000 down payment and a balance of £500 a month then we won’t charge her interest, but I had to convince the trustees to allow this."