Son’s court battle with parents over £2.3m farm
A BUSINESSMAN has taken his elderly parents to court over a £2.3million farm, which they agreed to buy together over a pub lunch.
Sean Preson, 56, and wife Janina, 55, claim they decided with his parents Ivan, 85, and Wendy Preson, 83, to go halves on the site.
The two couples bought the farm in 2003, each putting in £300,000 to cover the £525,000 asking price and renovation costs, a court heard.
They had agreed to share the land equally, it was said.
Fighting
The agreement was that Sean and his wife would get a barn, which they renovated into their current £520,000 home, while his parents would get the farmhouse, also now renovated and worth £740,000, the High Court heard.
But the couples are now fighting over who owns what share of the rest of the farm. On paper, Mr Preson’s parents own a
£923,000 area of land, while he and Janina own three fields worth £136,000, it was said. But Mr Preson and his wife took legal action, claiming that the paper position does not reflect the true agreement as first discussed at the Sunday lunch.
The relationship between Mr Preson and his parents slowly crumbled over the years after they began to live side by side in two houses on Springfield Farm, Huncote, Leicestershire, the court heard.
Sean claims his father threatened to kick his family out and “make them homeless” while he was away.
But his father accused his son and daughter-in-law of being “horrible to us”, adding: “We wanted to get away from Sean and his family.”
Mr Preson and his wife are now asking Judge Robin Vos to rule that all the land should be split equally.The case continues.