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With a silvery Christmas wreath above the door knocker and a notice of squatters' rights beneath, the entrance to the Old Rectory in Kettlestone makes a peculiarly topical festive statement.
Inside lives Samantha von Dä****n, a once wealthy interior designer who has resorted to squatting in the £1.6m north Norfolk mansion after being evicted for falling behind on her mortgage payments.
Von Dä****n, 46, blames her insurance company, Halifax, because it failed to pay out a substantial claim when trees fell on her property during storms. She also believes that the courts did not give her a sufficient chance to raise the money to make the repayments.
"It has become a £1.6m squat," Von Dä****n, who has three children, told the Guardian yesterday as she held her dog, Hector, on the doorstep of her home. She was let back into the house by bailiffs - claiming she needed to remove her furniture - and then claimed squatters' rights four weeks ago.
"It's just stupid. I feel like a super-tramp. My children are in different places, my furniture is in seven different locations and my animals have been taken away by the RSPCA."
Even as the number of repossession notices across the country soars and more borrowers struggle to pay mortgages, Von Dä****n's fall looks particularly extreme.
A few years ago she enjoyed a prosperous career as an interior designer to George Harrison, the Pet Shop Boys and banking families including the Rothschilds. Her ranges sold in Harrods and Liberty.
Success ran in the family. Her uncle was Erich von Dä****n, who won fame and fortune with books that presented what he claimed was evidence of extraterrestrial influence on early human culture.
In search of rural peace in which to raise her children, she retreated to the Old Rectory, a sprawling estate of buildings that includes more than a dozen bedrooms in the main house, barns and stable blocks. By the time she was evicted in August, she had run up a debt of more than £1m and it was costing her £8,000 in monthly payments.
One of her plans was to turn the property into a "bohemian bed and breakfast" place combined with a healing retreat. But given that the boiler was stripped out by burglars after her eviction, the house is now so cold you can see your breath; additionally, the bathrooms have been ripped out and the only lavatory is in an outhouse.
Von Dä****n's debts are with Kensington, a mortgage company with which she has a mortgage of £680,000, and Swift, a loans company from which she took a personal loan and which she now owes £415,000.
Her downfall began with a storm in January 2007 which brought a 200-year-old beech crashing on to her buildings. Her insurer at Halifax settled only part of the claim, leaving her to make up the remainder using her personal loan.
By that November she was struggling with the payments. Then the second storm hit in February this year, sealing her fate. By August she was in King's Lynn county court, where she was issued with a repossession order.
"It was 1.15pm on August 28 and I was told I would be evicted at 2pm, so I raced the bailiffs back to the house," she said. "They told me I had 15 minutes to get all my stuff out, which was impossible ... I have eight bedrooms in the rectory alone. I loaded up the car as much as I could with my sons. We went to a friend's for the night. Then for three weeks I slept in the back of my Land Rover while the children went to stay with their father."
The council did not rehouse her and she rented a one-bedroom flat in Walsingham, Norfolk, until she decided she could not see her collections of valuable Victorian and French furniture in the house taken away. A month ago she claimed squatters' rights after the bailiffs let her in.
"It was because of the Halifax that I lost my home and my children," she said. "It completely destroyed my life. I had over £500,000 of equity in the property and I wasn't given a chance to make the payments. They evicted me on the spot."
Von Dä****n shares the house with other squatters, including Leah and Holly Eatwell, who have travelled from London to benefit from the attention of Von Dä****n, who terms herself a natural healer and psychic surgeon.
"I think the Halifax reached a view and stubbornly refused to budge from it," said her local MP, Norman Lamb. "In this economic climate the property will be sold at a grossly reduced rate. We are left with a sense that all this should have been dealt with differently."
The Halifax said that the barn on which the first tree fell had a commercial use for which Von Dä****n was not insured. However, in a letter from last year seen by the Guardian, north Norfolk council accepts there is no business use for the barn in question and charges her domestic rates.
The Halifax also said she had stopped paying her premium before the second accident in February this year, and so the company did not settle that claim. "There was no valid insurance in place," a spokeswoman said. "We were unable to assist with any further payments. The customer was notified of the consequences."
A spokesman for Swift, which secured the repossession notice, said: "We followed procedures and protocol very closely. [Von Dä****n] had every opportunity to put her case before the judge. The matter is now with Kensington to regain vacant possession. It is unfortunate but not uncommon that customers find themselves in this position where they have no means of meeting their instalments."
Kensington, which with Swift was behind the repossession action, said it would be "inappropriate to offer comment" in such a complicated case.
Von Dä****n said: "Every day we wake up, and every knock at the door could be the last knock. It's soul destroying. We are on edge and tearful."
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