Elderly woman sues grandson for $4 million Farrer Road semi-D

An 80-year-old widow is suing her eldest grandson for the family home, a two-storey terraced house at 102 Farrer Road, worth $4 million. 

The widow, Mdm Lim Hoon Neo is claiming a 60.3 per cent stake in the house, which her late husband, Mr Ang Ho Sai, had willed only to the pair’s youngest son and their eldest grandson. 

Mr Ang Ho Sai died in 2014 at age 83.

Prior to his death, he had appointed his eldest grandson Ang Wee Chai, as the sole executor of his estate. 

Mr Ang through his legal representative revealed in court that Mdm Lim and his grandfather had not been on good terms more than 20 years ago and slept in separate rooms.

Mdm Lim’s granddaughter also testified to that, saying that she seldom saw the two in the same room or talking to each other. 

Mdm Lim denied their accusations. 

She told Shin Min Daily News: "How can this be? If it was really how they depicted it, why didn’t I ask for a divorce?"

According to The Straits Times, Mdm Lim and Mr Ang wedded when he was 18 and she was 14.

The two had five children together but one died in 1982. 

Mdm Lim worked as an amah in Alexandra Hospital and drew $96 monthly, while her husband worked as a peon in the British army, but ran a car rental business and a watch business later on. 

She stopped working when the couple had their third child.

Mdm Lim said that while her husband paid for household expenses, she supplemented the household income by renting out the rooms in their old zinc-roofed house, selling homemade rice wine, as well as friendly loans to neighbours. 

The couple bought the Farrer Road house for $36,500, of which Mdm Lim claimed she had contributed $22,000 or 60.3 per cent.  

However, the estate was placed under her husband name as he was the one handling the transaction. 

Mdm Lim is asking the court to declare that she has the right to stay in the house until it is sold, after which she would get 60.3 per cent of the proceeds.

Mr Ang, on the other hand, said that Mdm Lim and two of his uncles have been preventing him from carrying out his grandfather’s last wishes, by refusing to cooperate with his attempts to sell the property as stated in the will.

Last year, Mr Ang filed an application in the Family and Justice Court, asking for an order to let him administer the estate by ordering the sale of the property and for his grandmother to vacate the house.

He also contends that his grandmother had filed the High Court suit to hinder his attempt. 

Mdm Lim, however, added that her grandson had brought family members to ransack the place and look for the will while they were still holding her husband’s funeral proceedings. 

She added that she did not know that her husband had left a will and was unaffected despite not being given a share of the house. 

However, she was unhappy over her grandson’s decision to ‘monopolise’ the place and evict her from the premises. 

Court documents also revealed that Mdm Lim had sued her eldest son over a shop house, but the matter has been resolved out of court.