An 82-year-old gran who gifted her home to her daughter is now being evicted after a vicious court row. Norma Gibbons and her daughter Dawn Gibbons, 52, live in upstairs and downstairs flats in the same house.
A county court has heard that Dawn already owned the downstairs flat but her mum transferred ownership of the upstairs flat and the £1.4million building’s freehold in 2014 to cut down Dawn’s inheritance tax bill.
But the pair fell out when Dawn had a daughter in 2008, says Dawn who is now evicting Norma from the flat in Earlsfield, South London.
Dawn claimed her mum banged on the floor and made 155 hoax police calls.
She also claimed Norma made false accusations to Social Services which the council asked her to stop.
Talking in Central London County Court, she said: “I have had to install internal and external CCTV to prove what we are doing.
“It’s been absolutely horrendous.”
The daughter also claimed Norma deliberately caused water to leak down into her flat and had refused to let in tradesman who were booked to fix the damage.
Last year, the row was heard in court by Judge Alan Johns KC when Norma also claimed her daughter tricked her into signing over the flat.
But Judge Johns rejected Norma’s claims, finding that Norma transferred the property as a “gift” to avoid inheritance tax, without telling Dawn about it.
Dawn claims that her mother continued to refuse access to allow maintenance of the upstairs flat. She decided to hand Norma an eviction notice last November.
The case returned to court last week.
On behalf of Norma, Barrister Lara Simak argued she would never have agreed to the transfer unless it included an agreement she could stay for life.
Judge Gerald rejected this, saying Norma could not claim she thought the property transfer included a clause allowing her lifelong accommodation while also claiming she had been tricked into it.
Judge Gerald said Dawn had been pushed to her limit, adding: “I will order that the defendant give possession to the claimant forthwith.”
