Woman paying £250 a year to live in Evelyn Waugh's house is refusing to leave - despite the mansion being auctioned off
16 December 2022, 18:02 | Updated: 19 December 2022, 16:46
A woman who is paying £250 per year to live in a country house previously owned by the novelist Evelyn Waugh is refusing to leave, despite being served with an eviction notice after the property was auctioned off.
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Helen Lawton, an admirer of the 20th century literary great, said she has the support of his descendants to keep living in Piers Court in Gloucestershire.
But the eight-bed house was sold off on Thursday to a mystery buyer for £3.16 million - which Ms Lawton and her partner, Lebanese financier Bechara Madi, have called "legalised theft".
The couple have said they will stay in the house, which is set in 23 acres of rolling countryside in the Cotswolds.
Ms Lawton and Ms Madi set up a property company to purchase Piers Court four years ago with friend, millionaire ex-BBC boss Jason Blain. Mr Blain bought the house with a loan from Hoare's Bank, and the couple have been paying 'common-law rent' to live there.
But they were served with an eviction notice in August when the bank called in the loan, after business partner Mr Blain was sued over an alleged unpaid £740,000 hotel bill.
That led to an auction on Thursday, with the property going to an unknown buyer for more than £3 million.
Ms Lawton told the Mail Online: "For them to auction the house ten days before Christmas is totally outrageous, morally and on every level.
"It was my wish to restore the house and give it its dignity back. That was going to be my legacy in life.
"It was going to be a long project, I've done all the research on the architecture, the interiors, the grounds. It hasn't been touched since the eighties, it needs an enormous amount of work, especially on the outside.
"I am passionate about the house. It was love at first sight when I saw the house and apparently it was the same for Evelyn Waugh - he said he was beguiled by the place.
Mr Waugh, known for writing novels like Decline and Fall, Brideshead Revisited and A Handful of Dust, paid £3,600 for Piers Court in 1937 and lived there for 19 years.
Ms Lawton said: "You are only ever a custodian of somewhere like this.
"Bachara and I don't have children so we have considered leaving the house to the Evelyn Waugh Society."
Ms Lawton, who calls herself "eccentric", even bought a horse-drawn carriage to go with the home - spending £10,000.
The couple moved in several years ago and began restoration work before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ms Lawton said she was on good terms with the Waugh family, including the novelist's seventh child Septimus, who lived in Piers Court as a child and died only last year;
She said: I had lovely conversations with Septimus about his time at Piers Court. He could remember the staircases and the chandeliers.
"I had hoped that whatever time I had left I would be doing my utmost to restore the house and the grounds."
The couple have accused the auctioneers and receivers of acting aggressively and in an underhand way.
Mr Madi, 60, said: 'Until contracts are exchanged there is no formal sale - we need to speak to Jason (Blain) about this to assess our position.'We will have internal talks to see what our next move will be.'
