Joanna Louise Cridlin, from Wandsworth is seeking compensation from her neighbours’ landlords as she claims that the “strong overpowering vapour of hot chillies” from the flat above her home is constricting her airways and burning her windpipe.

Miss Cridlin said she has lived on the much sought after Geraldine Road for almost 40 years, where one-bed flats are sold for around £500,000 and houses fetch up to £2.85 million.

However, three years ago her neighbours moved in and have allegedly been the source of pungent fumes that “permeate her home” and have left her, on occasion, choking in her sleep and staggering to her balcony gasping for air.

She is suing their landlord for breaching its duty of care by failing to act on her complaints and is seeking damages for loss of earnings and personal injury.