NITA BOWERS, a graphic designer, regarded her two-bedroom apartment in a fashionable part of London as a prudent buy-to-let investment.

She paid £215,000 for the property but before putting it on the lettings market decided to have it painted and refurbished.

So she hired two Polish immigrants with a reputation for hard work, honesty and diligence to get it looking its best — only to find that they liked it so much that they moved in as squatters.

While working on the flat, overlooking Canary Wharf in Docklands, the two builders downed tools, changed the locks and refused to budge.

Then they handed the owner a legal document, taken from the internet, which appeared to describe their rights as squatters.

Mrs Bowers, 46, who works for a City investment bank, spoke yesterday of her shock when she called at the flat last month to check on progress, only to find that the men had moved in.

She said: “I went round with my estate agent and we could not understand why the keys would not work.

“I hammered on the door and was confronted by a burly Polish man, who thrust a legal document at me.

“It was in broken English and looked like it had been copied off the internet. It said they were now living in my flat, that they would not move and that I could not evict them.

“I said to them, ‘This is not your dream home, this is mine,’ but they slammed the door in my face.”

Mrs Bowers, a mother of four from New Malden, Surrey, was left paying two mortgages and sets of bills while she launched a legal battle to force the builders out.

She said: “I naturally assumed that the decorators were working by day and leaving at night. When I found out they were living there I was absolutely livid but felt so powerless.

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