A Judge has ordered the sale of Serena Williams’ crumbling childhood home in two weeks with an auction price tag of $1.42million after her stepmom blew the house’s mortgage.
Serena’s childhood home was put up for sale after her dad “King Richard” Williams’ estranged wife Lakeisha lost the property by blowing hundreds of thousands on a failed trucking business and “fast food and frivolities,” according to court papers.
The four-bedroom pad, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, has been at the centre of a five-year legal battle between Richard and Lakeisha, who allegedly forged her husband’s signature on the mortgage deeds to borrow $255,000 from “hard lender” David Simon and start a doomed transport company, legal docs revealed.
Simon has been trying to claw his money back – which now stands at $584,109 including interest – and Judge Luis Delgado, of the 15th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, has now ordered that the place will go up for auction on 27 September at 10am.
Lakeisha, 43 and 37 years junior to Richard, has been trying to stall proceedings and twice filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, but each time it was dismissed on the grounds that she couldn’t keep up with a repayment plan to pay Simon back and save the house.
Simon accused her in court papers of spending all her income on “fast food and frivolities” and never paid a dollar on what she owed.
The property is now listed on the foreclosedhomes.com website with an estimated market value of $1.42m.
It was built in 1986 and shows Lakeisha as owner with bankruptcy info stating “Chapter 13 dismissed”.
A tax lien from 2014 is also listed on the home’s history, as then owner Richard had failed to pay $8,845 in property taxes.
The “Notice of Sale” states that it “will sell to the highest and best bidder for cash”.
Mortgage loans won’t be accepted as payment, which is common with foreclosures, as properties must pass an inspection by the lender’s appraiser and will fail if there’s any evidence of disrepair.
As many foreclosed homes aren’t in the best shape, then they are “sold as seen”, as is the case with the Williams’ home.
Photos first shown by The Sun reveal how shambolic the estate had become.
The roof looked like it had been haphazardly repaired dozens of times while there was an abandoned truck on the property and crumbling outbuildings.
Simon argued that the property had fallen into such disrepair that it’s currently uninsurable due to its condition.
He stated in court docs that the “debtor is not providing adequate protection of Secured Creditor’s collateral, the House. The House is uninsured, the roof is leaking, and the collateral is in jeopardy of total loss.”
Richard, 80, whose life story was told in the movie King Richard starring Will Smith, was previously alleged to be suffering from irreparable “brain damage” and “dementia.”
Court documents from his divorce battle included testimony from his own doctor, claiming he was totally incapacitated.
However, at one stage, it looked like the pair had momentarily reconciled when she halted their divorce and told how the pair were still enjoying weekly sex sessions, legal papers revealed.
Source: The Sun
