Woman loses lawsuit against mother for 50% stake in 26 S'pore properties

Judge finds mother to be beneficial owner of 25 properties, with the other jointly owned

- Selina Lum Senior Law Correspondent

A woman who sued her 78-year-old mother, laying claim to a 50 per cent stake in 26 properties in Singapore, has lost her case in the High Court.

Ms Jenny Prawesti, 53, claimed that after the joint purchase of a unit at Centrepoint for $380,000 in 2002, her mother, Madam Sauw Tjiauw Koe, promised her that they would continue to buy properties together as equal owners in the future.

Following the purchase of the Centrepoint property, 25 other properties were bought in the names of Madam Sauw, Ms Prawesti or Ms Prawesti's younger brother, Mr Ronny Prananto.

Most of the properties were registered with Madam Sauw holding 90 per cent, Mr Prananto 9 per cent, and Ms Prawesti 1 per cent as tenants-in-common.

Madam Sauw denied making the alleged promise to Ms Prawesti. She said her children were only her nominees and that she was the owner of all the properties bought in their names.

She said she told her children that she was merely “borrowing” their names for convenience to help her deal with third parties and to teach them about property investment.

Madam Sauw has also bought other properties jointly with Mr Prananto.

She alleged that Ms Prawesti sued her in retaliation as she had stopped helping her daughter pay her credit cards bills in 2021.

She contended in a counterclaim that her daughter's registered shares in the 26 properties were held on trust for her.