Woman who already owned 5 properties wanted elderly dad's 4 homes

Daughter of real estate tycoon inserted her name as co-owner when helping with paperwork

- Tan Ooi Boon

A real estate tycoon who liked to buy property for his children became entangled in a bitter lawsuit when one of his daughters ironically claimed that she was a co-owner of his own investment properties.

The 90-year-old businessman, who is illiterate, got caught up in this dispute only because he wanted to use the proceeds from the sale of four investment properties to buy a home for a grandson.

It was then that he discovered that he was not the sole owner of these properties.

His youngest daughter, who helped him with the paperwork for the purchase of the homes for around $11 million in all between 2004 and 2018, had also inserted her name as a co-owner. This was on top of the five homes she already owned in her own name.

To make matters worse, the daughter objected to the sale, claiming that all four homes, which are likely to be worth a lot more today, were hers as they were gifts from her father.

The elderly man was so upset that he sued his daughter to reclaim the properties.

He related his case in the Hokkien dialect and struck High Court Judge Choo Han Teck as a credible witness who testified without embellishment or deception.

Justice Choo not only found that the man had bought the four properties for himself as investments, but he also believed his claim that his daughter had taken advantage of his inability to read by putting her name on the title deeds.

The daughter argued that her name was included as a co-owner because her father had intended to give her these properties. But this claim did not gel with her father's practice of buying properties for each of his six children in their own names.

Indeed, this daughter had five properties purchased in her name by her father, of which three have since been sold.

"That exposes the flaw in (her) contention that the (father) gave the four properties to her as joint tenant," Justice Choo added.