Instead of getting half of the over S$617,000 in en bloc sale proceeds, a woman will only be entitled to 10 percent of the amount collected from selling a privatised HUDC flat, which she co-owns with her daughter.
This is after the High Court released a decision giving Madam Lim Geok Swan, 76, only 10 percent and leaving the balance to her daughter Lim Shook Luan, 49. Justice Judith Prakash denied Lim’s claim that her daughter verbally agreed on a 50-50 share when the flat was acquired in 1991.
The judge ordered the proceeds of the collective sale to be pro-rated based on the two parties’ contributions to the purchase.
Madam Lim claimed they verbally agreed to become joint tenants of the Minton Rise unit while equally sharing its sales proceeds. However, her daughter reneged on this, she said.
The privatised HUDC apartment located in Hougang Street 11 was sold in a collective sale in 2007. Madam Lim had demanded about S$308,800 from the total proceeds of S$617,737.
When it was bought in 1991, the flat was priced at S$280,000. According to Madam Lim, she paid for her share that included over S$87,700 from 1991 to 2009, accounting for utilities, property-tax charges and conservancy fees.
On the other hand, her daughter, an accountant, argued she made all the mortgage payments through a loan amounting to S$200,000 taken in 1991.
Not convinced that there was indeed an agreement upon the purchase of the HUDC flat, Justice Prakash said, “I am satisfied that at the material time the parties had a poor relationship and were not prone to long discussions with each other.”
After calculating the total money spent on various items including the acquisition of the unit, Madam Lim’s contribution was found to be only 9.56 percent of the S$379,188 spent, while her daughter paid nearly 90.44 percent. This resulted in the court ordering that the S$617,737 should be shared based on those percentages.
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