A mother feels like a 'prisoner' in her home after her new neighbours started work building a five-bedroom house just inches from her garden. 

Lorie Williams, 47, is planning on taking legal action and fears the work has destroyed the value of her seven-bedroom £2.5million Victorian mansion in Bromley, south east London. 

She claims the work which has been ongoing since March has made her life a 'living nightmare'.

'It has taken hundreds of thousands of pounds off the value of the property. We don't use the garden. It might as well not be there,' Ms Williams told the Daily Mail. 

'Everything we have worked so hard for is being ruined by this development.' 

Her gorgeous views of expansive greenery have been replaced by cluttered scaffolding and she claims she has lost significant light. 

Just days after the work started Ms Williams made a complaint to the Health and Safety Executive and local council - who she blames for the chaos. 

'This should never have been granted planning permission by Bromley Council. Not one representative came to our home to see how this would affect us,' she said. 

'A "right to light" lawyer has advised us we have a case and this is our next option.'

The family claim to have been subjected to men looking into their home all day and no longer go into their expansive garden. 

She added: 'I feel boxed in. It's claustrophobic. I want to move now. I hate it. Who would want to live here? 

'We can't look out our windows anymore without the fear people are looking at us.

'Our blinds are constantly down, we have lost our privacy. 

'Everyone that comes to visit us is in shock at how imposing this development is on our home. 

'Every time this happens it makes me more and more depressed at how my home has been completely ruined for us.'

The five-bedroom development was approved in November and is being designed by an architect who plans to live there with his family.

Justin Laurence, the developer, was approached for comment.

Bromley Council has been contacted for comment.