A ROW triggered by dog hair and claw scratches on a Fordingbridge door led to a titanic row between two couples - which culminated in a full-blown High Court libel action.

All seemed completely routine when Steven and Virginia Grose rented out a house in Fordingbridge to Stephen and Abigail Owens on a six-month tenancy in February 2013.

Mr and Mrs Owens paid a £1,575 deposit, and that became the focus of a legal struggle with high-powered teams of barristers and solicitors deployed on both sides.

When the Owens lease of No. 2 Beechwood was up, the Groses' argued that at least part of the deposit should be forfeited.

Mrs Grose complained that there were 'dog scratches on a door' which she said had not been there before, said Mr Justice Dingemans.

Pointing to white dog hairs on the carpet, she also said it did not look like the house had been professionally cleaned before Mr and Mrs Owens moved out.

Accusations and counter-accusations between the couples followed and eventually Mr and Mrs Grose wrote a fateful letter to local letting agents, Goadsby & Harding.

As the dispute became more and more heated, Mr and Mrs Owens' reaction was to launch libel proceedings.

They claimed, amongst other things, that the letter implied that they were bad tenants who failed to care for their pets properly.

And they claimed damages, aggravated damages and an injunction against Mr and Mrs Grose.

Stopping the case in its tracks today, Mr Justice Dingemans ruled that the contents of the letter were covered by the defence of 'qualified privilege'.

That was because the letting agents had received the letter in their professional capacity and as custodians of the deposit.

The judge said the dispute over the deposit had 'generated a considerable amount of heat' on both sides.

But Mr Owens, a prominent local managing agent, and his wife had no prospect of proving that the Groses wrote the letter 'maliciously'.

He accepted that one of the allegations levelled against Mr Owens was "serious" and would have justified a full trial of the case.

But he emphasised that Mr and Mrs Grose had never pleaded that the allegations in the letter were justified.