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Four years after first engaging in a legal battle with disabled veteran Carl Westcott over the purchase of a Montecito mansion, musician Katy Perry has finally emerged with the home’s title in hand, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Through the limited liability company DDoveB, Perry took title to the property on May 12, according to property records. The name of Perry’s daughter with partner Orlando Bloom is Daisy Dove Bloom.
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The deed to the home was filed just days before Perry bid goodbye to her stint as an American Idol judge after seven seasons.
In the summer of 2020, as the pandemic drove demand for homes, Westcott, the 85-year-old founder of 1-800-Flowers who also has Huntington’s Disease, signed a contract to sell the home to Perry via her business manager, Bernie Gudvi, for $15 million.
Westcott himself had only purchased the home a few months earlier for $11.25 million, and days after signing the contract with Perry had a change of heart. The former entrepreneur claimed that painkillers that he had taken following a recent major surgery had impaired his decision-making abilities. Medical records presented at trial also suggested he was experiencing early symptoms of dementia.
Both parties sued, and a legal battle continued for years, as supporters of Westcott pointed to Perry’s history of wresting property away from vulnerable individuals, like the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, whose Spanish-Gothic-Tudor home Perry purchased in 2011, despite their objections in court.
In late 2023, Judge Joseph Lipner ruled that the home sale was valid. A second phase of the trial, set for July, will determine what damages are owed to Perry.
Thus far, the pop singer has paid $9 million for the estate, according to property records. Perry will pay the remaining balance after damages have been determined (if, at that point, Westcott’s damages do not exceed the remaining balance).
Perry is seeking damages for lost fair-market rental value, costs of any deferred maintenance, and repairs relating to water damage and a fallen tree.
Chart Westcott, a son of Carl Westcott, has advocated for legislation to protect the elderly against financial abuse in real estate transactions in response to the ordeal with Perry. The proposed act, called Protecting Elder Realty for Retirement Years Act or the “Katy PERRY Act,” seeks to “address the risks of elder financial abuse, especially as it relates to property and real estate sales and transfers.” It also allows for a 72-hour cool-down period after a contract is signed in which either party involved in selling a personal residence, if they are over the age of 75, can rescind the agreement.
Chart Westcott said in a statement sent to The WSJ that Perry’s “Hollywood hypocrisy and fake empathy knows no bounds. Her continuing to seek damages, which will be paid in effect by my father’s grandchildren, is totally heartless.”
The Montecito estate features a pool and two guesthouses, as well as an outdoor kitchen and fireplace. The home sits on about two acres of land.
When Perry put an offer on the home in 2020, she outbid journalist Maria Shriver for the property. At the time, Perry was pregnant with her daughter.
As Perry and Westcott each continued to make claim to the property in the last few years, Wescott moved into a residential managed-care mental-health facility, his family reported.
Throughout the case, Perry has maintained that the prolonged legal battle has robbed her of rental income she might otherwise have made on the property. However, it is unclear if she herself will live in the home at all. In October 2020, Perry also paid $14.2 million for a separate Montecito mansion on nine acres of land.
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