After court battle, Katy Perry takes control of $15M Montecito estate

Katy Perry fought a Texas car dealer mogul over a Montecito estate. And the pop star won.

The “Dark Horse” singer took the title on a 9,300-square-foot estate at 1569 East Valley Road after a years-long court battle with seller Carl Westcott, the Wall Street Journal reported.

As a tribute to her daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom, Perry used the limited liability company DDoveB to take ownership of the estate on May 17, according to property records.

The deed was filed two days before Perry’s final episode as a judge on “American Idol.” 

For four years, the singer had fought to wrest control of the gated estate from Westcott, a car-dealership and communications-business mogul. It includes four buildings in the Santa Ynez foothills built in the 1930s, then renovated by architect Lutah Maria Riggs.

In July 2020, Westcott inked a deal to sell the home for $15 million to Bernie Gudvi, Perry’s business manager, acting on her behalf. A few days later, Westcott informed Perry that he didn’t want to sell. 

Both sides sued, leading to a lengthy legal battle that raised questions about mental capacity and the lengths to which the wealthy will go to lay claim to coveted homes in a tight housing market, according to the newspaper.

At the crux of the dispute was Westcott, an 81-year-old military veteran with Huntington’s Disease, who had just had surgery and claimed he was high on painkillers when he signed the contract to sell his Montecito home to singer Perry and her partner, actor Orlando Bloom.

In December,  Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Joseph Lipner ruled in Perry’s favor, ordering that the sales contract stand. 

Perry is expected to testify at a second phase of the trial in July, which will determine damages.

Perry has paid $9 million for the estate so far, according to property records. The remaining balance will be paid once the damages owed by Westcott, which may be up to $6 million, are determined.

Perry’s team is asking for damages for lost fair-market rental value, deferred maintenance and repairs needed for water damage and a tree falling, according to court documents. 

Chart Westcott, one of Carl Westcott’s sons, said in an email 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.”

With a pool and two guesthouses, the property is surrounded by towering hedges and sits on more than 2 acres in the heart of Montecito, an unincorporated town south of Santa Barbara popular with celebrities.

Westcott, a car-dealership and communications-business mogul who had long vacationed in Santa Barbara from his home in Dallas, bought the house in May 2020 for $11.25 million.

Perry, who grew up in Santa Barbara County, agreed to buy it a few weeks later after outbidding TV journalist Maria Shriver. At the time, Perry and Bloom were expecting a child.

It isn’t clear when and if Perry and Bloom plan to move in. Their daughter was born in August 2020. Two months later, the singer paid $14.2 million for another home on 9 acres in Montecito, with ocean views. 

Perry ran into another legal bramble when she tried to buy an 8-acre convent in Los Feliz for a future home.

The pop star spent roughly two years fighting a group of aging nuns and a competing wannabe buyer, restaurateur Dana Hollister, for the former Waverly Place convent at 3431 Waverly Drive. An 89-year-old nun died in the courtroom.

After spending $2.6 million in legal fees, Perry acquired the property in 2016, with damages totaling more than $15 million.

— Dana Bartholomew

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