HE has been forced to abandon his £400,000 home after suffering at least eight floods that have left the property uninhabitable.

Now Hampshire businessman Julian Perris, 54, has plastered the front of the three-bedroom cottage with signs highlighting the ordeal he has suffered over the past four years.

Three of the neighbouring houses in Queen’s Parade, Lyndhurst, are up for sale.

Mr Perris, who runs a jewellery shop in the village, says everyone should be made aware of the flood risk, including anyone thinking of buying a property in the street.

He also wants his insurance company to either pay for a new house or put the existing property on stilts to prevent further flooding.

A large banner draped across the front of the Victorian cottage says: “Look! Houses flooding in this area.”

Smaller notices placed in the windows say “Flooded 8x” and “Not the only house”.

However, he has fallen foul of the National Park Authority (NPA), which has told him to remove the signs. It has also warned him that he could face prosecution over what it describes as “unauthorised advertisements”.

But Mr Perris said: “It’s not an advertisement – it’s a statement of fact.”

The businessman bought the cottage for £80,000 in 1995 and says its value has soared to £400,000 in the intervening years.

But the property needs repairs costing more than £100,000 after a spate of floods caused, he says, by poor surface water drainage.

Mr Perris and his partner, Jill Allen, have moved out of the property and are currently living in rented accommodation that is costing them £1,600 a month.

The empty rooms stink of damp and the garden is getting overgrown.

He said: “We don’t want to go back to the house. It holds too many bad memories and it’s going to flood again – we’ve been told that categorically.”

Mr Perris said at least four other properties in the street had also flooded and added: “I want people to know what’s happened.”

His protest is partly aimed at Halifax Home Insurance, which has yet to settle his claim.

He said: “There doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency on their part to sort it out. I’m at the end of my tether.”

But a Halifax spokesman said Mr Perris had been offered £102,000 to repair flood damage to the ground floor and replace the damaged contents.

He added: “Mr Perris rejected this offer as he wants us to pay for either a new house or rebuild the house on stilts to prevent further flooding.

“He also feels the settlement for his contents was not enough.

“As with most home insurance, his policy is designed to cover the cost of returning the home to the state it was in prior to the incident and not to cover the cost of home improvement.”

New Forest District Council said a Queen’s Parade resident reported a flood earlier this month and was advised to contact Hampshire County Council.

But a county council spokesman said it had “no record” of any flooding problems in the street in the past two years.

Mr Perris’s neighbours declined to comment and estate agents in the village also refused to discuss his protest.