Gran, 82, evicted after gifting home to her daughter 'due to inheritance tax'

05 July 2023 , 06:40

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Norma Gibbons outside Central London County Court (Image: Champion News)

An 82-year-old gran who gave her home to her daughter is being evicted after a bitter court battle.

Norma Gibbons and her daughter Dawn Gibbons, 52, live in upstairs and downstairs flats in the same house.

Dawn already owned her downstairs flat but a court heard Norma transferred ownership of her upstairs flat and the £1.4million building’s freehold in 2014.

It was said she aimed to minimise Dawn’s eventual inheritance tax bill.

Dawn said the pair fell out when she had a daughter in 2008 adding her mother banged on the floor and made 155 hoax police calls.

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She said Norma made so many false accusations to Social Services that the council eventually asked her to stop.

The upstairs and downstairs flats in Earlsfield, London, that's at the heart of the bitter mother-daughter dispute (Champion News)

Dawn Gibbons outside Central London County Court (Champion News)

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 Norma had deliberately caused water to leak down into her flat, and had refused entry to tradesmen booked to fix the damage.

The case went before Judge Alan Johns KC at the county court last year when Norma claimed her daughter had tricked her into signing the flat over.

Judge Johns rejected her claim, finding Norma had not even told Dawn about the transfer. The case returned before Judge Gerald, as Dawn tried to evict Norma from the flat in Earlsfield, South London.

Acting for 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.”

Paul Keogh