Yahoo News Gran booted out of flat after gifting home to daughter 'due to inheritance tax'
An 82-year-old gran who gave her home to her daughter to reportedly try and cut down an inheritance tax bill is now being evicted after a bitter court battle.
Norma Gibbons transferred ownership of her upstairs flat and the £1.4million building's freehold in 2004 to her daughter Dawn Gibbons, 52, but the pair fell out, The Mirror reports.
The mum and daughter live in upstairs and downstairs flats in the same house and Dawn already owned her downstairs flat before Norma transferred ownership.
The move was reportedly aiming to minimise Dawn’s eventual inheritance tax bill.
Dawn alleged that when she had a daughter in 2008 they fell out after her mother made her life hell, banging on the floor and making 155 hoax police calls.
She said Norma made so many false accusations to Social Services that the council eventually asked her to stop.
Dawn told Central London county court: "I have had to install internal and external CCTV to prove what we are doing.
"It's been absolutely horrendous."
Dawn said her mum had deliberately caused water to leak down into her flat, and had refused entry to tradesmen booked to fix the damage.
The case first came to the courts last year when Norma claimed her daughter had tricked her into signing the flat over.
Judge Alan Johns KC at the county court rejected her claim, finding Norma had not even told Dawn about the transfer.
But the case returned before Judge Gerald, as Dawn tried to evict Norma from the flat in Earlsfield, South London.
Norma's barrister Lara Simak argued she would never have agreed to the transfer unless it included an agreement she could stay for life.
However, 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."
A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that the ownership of the upstairs flat was transferred in 2014. In fact, this happened in 2004. We are happy to clarify this.
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