A London financier lost his £2.6 million claim to his mother's Chelsea home

Living in a family-owned property for decades does not necessarily give someone a legal claim to ownership, even when there have been discussions about inheritance. That distinction became central to a dispute involving London financier Andrew Grijns and his 80-year-old mother, Janice Grijns, over a four-bedroom townhouse in Chelsea. Andrew had lived in the property for more than 20 years, but after his father's death, the relationship between mother and son deteriorated. He eventually went to court seeking two-thirds of the house's value, around £2.6 million, as reported by The Independent. The High Court rejected his claim, declared him a trespasser and ordered him to pay £85,000 for every year he remained after August 2023.The £3.85 million Chelsea townhouse Andrew lived in for more than 20 yearsThe property at the centre of the dispute is a four-storey Georgian terraced house in Bury Walk, Chelsea. Reportedly, Andrew's parents, Janice and Leendert Grijns, bought the property in 1994. The Chelsea townhouse was valued at approximately £3.85 million in July 2024. The building has four bedrooms and a separate basement flat, providing accommodation as well as a base for the family when they spent time in London.Leendert worked in banking, while Janice had a background in real estate before moving into academia.