text: A farmer has lost a nine-year legal battle to save the dream home he built without planning permission and hid behind hay bales for four years. Robert Fidler, 66, secretly constructed the mock-Tudor castle complete with battlements and cannons and lived there with his family from 2002. He unveiled it officially in 2006 when he thought he would be able to exploit a legal loophole that prevents enforcement action against a structure if no objections have been made for at least four years. Scroll down for video . Robert Fidler has lost a nine-year legal battle to save the dream home (above) he built in Salfords, Surrey, without planning permission and hid behind hay bales for four years . But the local authority immediately laid siege by refusing to grant retrospective permission. Now, after numerous court appearances costing tens of thousands of pounds, Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has finally ruled the four-bedroom home on Green Belt land at Honeycrocks Farm in Salfords, Surrey – worth well in excess of £1million if sold on the open market - must be pulled down within 90 days. Mr Fidler yesterday compared the situation to an artist being made to destroy a piece of work. ‘It would be like Rembrandt being asked to rip up his masterpiece of an oil painting or something for me to demolish it,’ he complained. He added: ‘I don’t think I have any choice, to be honest. What they’re saying now is if I don’t demolish it in 90 days they’ll put me in prison.’ Mr Fidler started as a tenant farmer at Honeycrock Farm in the 1970s and bought the farmyard and ten acres of land in 1985. There was no farmhouse, however, so from 2000 he began building the house around two grain silos at a cost of £50,000. Features include weathered brick and stone, carved wooden pillars and beams and a stained-glass dome above the stairwell. The 66-year-old used dozens of hay bales, blue tarpaulin and tyres to hide the house (above) from 2002 to 2006 . Mr Fidler, pictured (above) outside the house, compared the situation to an artist being made to destroy a piece of work . Mr Fidler and his wife, Linda, went to such lengths to hoodwink locals and the authorities that they kept their son Harry, now 14, off playschool on the day his class were due to paint scenes of their homes. ‘We couldn’t have him drawing a big blue haystack – people might have asked questions,’ Mrs Fidler explained previously. Neighbours expressed anger at the brazenness of the plan when the property’s existence was declared. One said: ‘It was a complete shock when the hay came down and this castle was in its place. Everyone else has to abide by planning laws, so why shouldn’t they?’ Reigate and Banstead Borough Council served an enforcement notice requiring it be razed to the ground, claiming the four-year period after which the building would be allowed to stay was void as no one had been able to see it. Mr Fidler, who has five children from a previous marriage, appealed to the Planning Inspectorate which found in favour of the council because the property had not been ‘substantially complete’ for the four years required. Mr Fidler and his wife, Linda (above), went to such lengths to hoodwink locals and the authorities that they kept their son Harry, now 14, off playschool on the day his class were due to paint scenes of their homes . The four-bedroom house, complete with chandeliers, would be worth well in excess of £1million if sold on the open market - but it must be pulled down within 90 days . Features include weathered brick and stone, carved wooden pillars and beams, and a stained-glass dome above the stairwell . This was a reference to the bales and tarpaulins that had been used to conceal it, meaning the project had effectively continued after 2002. The farmer then took his case to the High Court in 2009 and to the Court of Appeal the following year, both of which dismissed his challenge. Further delays were caused when he submitted applications for the house to be retained for agricultural use. He claimed it was needed to provide accommodation for a worker in connection with a beef farming business on the site. These were rejected by the Planning Inspectorate last year but another appeal was heard in a Public Inquiry before Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, intervened and dismissed the claim, which raised ‘important or novel issues of development control and/or legal difficulties.’ A council spokesman yesterday said it had a ‘duty’ to uphold planning rules designed to protect the Green Belt. He added: ‘The Secretary of State’s decision demonstrates that people who ignore planning rules for the good of everyone are likely to find themselves in this unfortunate position.’
target: Robert Fidler has lived in castle in Salfords, Surrey, since 2002 with family .
  Used bales of hay to disguise the building before unveiling it in 2006 .
  Tried to exploit loophole that allows building if no complaints for four years .
  66-year-old must now demolish the four-bedroom house worth £1million .