Family take property portfolio battle to High Court

A warring family has taken to the High Court to settle its differences over a £2.6 million property portfolio.

Tajleena Islam claims her parents and brother used her gold and jewellery to invest in property in East London.

Islam, aged 43, says she was given gold coins and heirlooms by her grandparents and other relatives.

Her mother Sultana and father Mohammed, who died in 2017, took the valuable items as well as £150,000 cash inheritance and used them to build the portfolio, she claims.

Victim

Now Islam is suing her 79-year-old mother and older brother Rahit, aged 53, in the High Court over ownership of the five properties, of which she says she owes half.

She says she was the victim of “undue influence” in signing over her stake in the properties.

‘Melodrama and lies’

But Islam’s mother and brother deny the claims, saying the portfolio belongs solely to them. They say Islam is prone to “melodrama and lies”.

Acting for the mother and son, George Woodhead said Islam had provided “scant” evidence that there ever was a collection of gold and jewellery.

‘No evidence’

“To say that, whilst living rent-free under their roof, [the daughter] was a co-contributor of capital to her parents’ purchase of investment property is inherently unlikely, and there really is no evidence to properly support that supposed fact,” he said.

Judgement in the case will be given later.