Neelu’s former home auctioned for £415k

It’s been a long time coming, but yesterday Neelu Berry’s former home at 3 Peel Drive in Ilford was sold at auction, on a bid of £415,000.

Image: Quatloos

Neelu and her friend Lee Cant attended the bidding, which Neelu tried to disrupt at one point, shouting, “It’s a stolen property! It’s not for sale! I’ve got the police report—don’t touch me!…” as a security guard took her arm and began to usher her out of the room.

Neelu kept up the verbal barrage, loudly complaining that she had been assaulted and manhandled, but to no avail, as the guards successfully ejected her from the auction hall.

“You’re hurting me!” she shouted, though judging from the video the guards seemed to do their jobs calmly and efficiently. Once outside the auction hall, she turned on a guard, demanding, “What country are you from? What’s your name?”

A woman who introduced herself as the manager of the building did her best to calm the situation, and Neelu tried her usual tactic: “Who are you? What’s your name? What’s your number? What company are you from?” However, no one was having any.

Neelu did quiet down, and Lee spoke on the phone to Patrick Coyle, one of their sidekicks who has accompanied them on a few of their courtroom adventures in the past. Lee handed the phone to Neelu, who claimed that the guards had manhandled her, and that she was “bruised all over” [see also: The Princess and the Pea—Ed.].

Sounding most displeased, she stated that the guards were adding salt to the wound [“wounds”, shurely—Ed.] by standing behind her and laughing at her predicament. Of course, there was no evidence that this was the case, but the guards did seem to be regarding her rather warily, as one might watch a growling dog which could turn on one at any moment.

Repossession timeline

It’s never pleasant to watch a person kicked out of their home, and the home sold at auction, but in this case we have to say that Neelu’s own actions seem to have led her slowly but inevitably to yesterday’s events.

In 2013, Neelu listed the house for sale, asking £425,000: 

However, it failed to sell, and at some point between 2013 and 2016 she began to default on her mortgage.

We reported in March 2017 that Neelu’s house had been repossessed by the Co-operative Bank, and an order for repossession had been issued, to take effect on 23 March 2017.

In an interview with Andy Peacher on 31 July 2017, she informed him that the house was due for repossession any time after 9 August.

However, it was not until 10 January 2018 that the bailiffs finally turned up, accompanied by police. They broke the house’s front doorjamb, but otherwise this opening volley seemed to prove fruitless.

Bailiffs made another attempt on 25 January, but once again were seen off. At this time, Neelu remarked prophetically that things were about to get “quite messy”.

In the middle of all this, Neelu was charged with benefits fraud, which she tackled with her usual combination of impenetrable freeman on the land woo and her trusty selfie stick.

On 20 July 2018, the bailiffs and police finally managed to evict Neelu and her family from the house. As ‘A Berry British Coup’ commented at the time, “This was painful to watch”.

There followed a weeks-long siege, in which Neelu recorded herself stalking her old home on a daily basis, confronting the guards and dogs who had been stationed there to prevent her taking back possession. There were also various pseudo-legal shenanigans, led primarily by Edward W. Ellis, involving “ruin frauds” and the like, but strangely, this had no effect on the final outcome.

By the end of yesterday’s video, it seemed that Neelu had finally been struck by the grim reality that her house was permanently gone.

According to the good folks on the Quatloos discussion board, Neelu ought to walk away from this with between £150,000 and £289,000, once expenses have been figured in. 

As they correctly point out, though, it’s likely that the money will be siphoned off to her various friends and hangers-on. We do hope she and her son are not left homeless, and even that she might learn something from this. However, we’re not optimistic, given past performance.