Banker sues his ex-wife for £500,000 ... because she wouldn’t leave family home
A MILLIONAIRE banker is suing his ex- wife for £500,000 in back-dated rent after she refused to leave their £6million home.
Kerim Derhalli, 56, earned almost £1billion for clients during his career in finance.
But when the time came to split his assets with Jayne Richardson Derhalli after 27 years of marriage, the pair clashed over their five-bedroom home in Kensington, west London. Mrs Richardson Derhalli, also 56, refused to move out despite being promised a divorce settlement worth around £11.5million.
Now a court has ruled she could be ‘considered a trespasser’ after she repeatedly ignored Mr Derhalli’s demands to leave. He wants £500,000 to cover the years she spent in the home rent-free – the equivalent of £20,000 a month.
The Central London County Court last week heard Mrs Richardson Derhalli married the former head of commodity trading at Deutsche Bank in 1989.
They enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, splitting their time between London and an 18th- century estate in Dawlish, Devon, with 12 acres of gardens. But their relationship broke down in 2012 and the couple, who have two grownup children, divorced in October 2016. Mr Derhalli had moved into rented accommodation in 2014, and he and his wife agreed to a ‘clean break’ consent order to divide their wealth.
Oxford graduate Mr Derhalli had bought the family home in his sole name for £2.6million in February 2004. The pair agreed to sell the house, with Mrs Richardson Derhalli accepting £5million from the sale along with a further £6.5million settlement.
But they failed to find a buyer for the property after listing it for £8million – and Mrs Richardson Derhalli decided to stay put.
In March 2017, her former husband’s lawyers asked that ‘she either vacate the property... or start paying rent for her occupation’.
She argued that she had a right to stay rent-free in the house until it was sold, with her lawyers informing Mr Derhalli of her intention to do so in October of that year.
The house finally sold for just under £6million earlier this year – and Mrs Richardson Derhalli duly moved out. Mr Derhalli then sued her for two years of unpaid rent. Judge Nigel Gerald heard Mrs Richardson Derhalli’s right to stay in the house was ‘extinguished’ after the divorce, and that she had been unlawfully squatting.
Nat Duckworth, representing Mrs Richardson Derhalli, told the court she was within her rights and her staying put was ‘standard practice’ in matrimonial cases.
However, Judge Gerald was unable to accept that the situation left her ‘ vulnerable’ given the expected divorce settlement.
Mrs Richardson Derhalli has since remarried and now lives in Torquay. The amount of rent she must pay her ex-husband will be determined at court at a later date.