Millionairess loses fight to snatch £3m Chelsea home from daughter

By Tamara Cohen
A millionairess has lost the battle to strip her daughter of her £3million home.
Diana Lindsay, 85, feared the property would be lost if 53-year-old Beverley split up with her husband, who is twice divorced.
She had loaned her daughter the money to buy the Chelsea house and claimed this – along with the fact it was her own ‘bolthole’ – entitled her to a 93 per cent stake in it.

But Judge Patrick McCahill rejected her arguments, saying it was clear Miss Lindsay was the sole and rightful owner.
He said Mrs Lindsay visited London only occasionally and was trying to ‘rewrite history’ by calling Crawford Lodge her second home.
The retired property developer was, he added, a shrewd and astute businesswoman but her evidence was full of ‘exaggeration and selective recall of events’.

Bristol County Court heard that mother and daughter had enjoyed an excellent relationship until the latter married Michael Palmer, a     64-year-old tax inspector.
One major source of contention was said to be the guest list for their wedding in April 2008. Mr Palmer claimed his mother-in-law offered to pay for the reception – and invite everyone in her address book.

Mrs Lindsay, who has a £1.5million home in Sussex and property in Spain, was quick to suspect her son-in-law’s motives.
The court heard she and her late husband Kenneth, a chartered surveyor, had built up a property portfolio and loaned their daughter £256,000 to buy the lodge in 1991. 
The loan – and others for earlier property purchases – were recorded by the family solicitor and showed Mrs Lindsay’s meticulous eye for financial affairs, the court heard.
Mrs Lindsay first mentioned her claim to the property in 2008, in a letter urging her daughter to get a pre-nup. She said she would ‘fight to the death ... like a lioness with her cubs’ to make sure her daughter ‘got something when I’m dead’.
‘Please my love have a pre-nup, don’t be too gullible,’ she wrote. ‘I simply wish to protect you from anything going wrong, which I hope it will not.’
The judge said the relationship had previously been loving and mutually supportive, with Miss Lindsay wanting for nothing from her generous parents.
‘This was a case of comparatively wealthy parents seeking to help their only child on to the property ladder, not by giving her the money, but by allowing her to borrow the purchase price,’ he said.
 But it was ‘perfectly obvious’ Miss Lindsay always believed the property belonged to her and was ‘astonished’ to hear her mother assert she owned Crawford Lodge.
The judge rejected Mrs Lindsay’s claim on the property but ordered her daughter to repay the £101,000 outstanding on the loan.
He said the loan did not mean Mrs Lindsay had a ‘beneficial interest’ unless she expressly said so at the time. The three-bedroom property was purchased – for £275,000 – in Miss Lindsay’s name.
The recruitment consultant remains the beneficiary of her mother’s will, even though the pair have not spoken in 18 months.Mr Palmer said yesterday: ‘It’s not over yet but we are pleased with the judgment.’ 
He has previously said his mother-in-law ‘had it in for him’ because she wanted her daughter to remain single and under her control.
Mrs Lindsay had also asked him ‘inappropriate questions’ about his previous marriages, he said in court.
His daughter Sarah, 39, said: ‘When I was introduced to Beverley’s mother she just looked down her nose at me.
‘She said to me quite matter of factly that she didn’t like Michael and I got the impression she just didn’t want her to get married to anyone.
‘My father told me then that she was a battleaxe and all she is doing with this court case is confirming that view of her.
‘My father is an upright man who sold a house he owned in Manchester before his marriage to Beverley.
‘He has a top job with the Inland Revenue and is very well paid. He has five grandchildren and looks after them very well.’