SOUTH PORTLAND — Three Maine residents who took a complaint about the size of a neighbor’s lot all the way to the state’s highest court have lost.

Court records say Mary Campbell, Maureen Conroy and Edward Conroy appealed the issuance of a permit that allowed neighbor Kay Loring to build a small single-family home in a residential South Portland neighborhood.

The city issued a variance to a previous owner of the lot in 1973 because it was 4,703 square feet. That’s just short of the necessary 5,000 square feet required to build a house. Campbell and the Conroys appealed the permit to the city and later Cumberland County Superior Court. They said the 1973 variance was no longer in effect.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled against Campbell and the Conroys on Thursday.