Wording of their mother’s will did not properly carry out terms of a family understanding Helena Stirrup claims, leading to a dispute over ownership of a Rotorua home later occupied by her sister to the exclusion of Helena and her siblings.
The legal train of events started with a 1986 relationship property settlement in which Hemi Colin Scott transferred his half interest in the family home on Dawson Drive in Ngongotaha to his spouse Mary Anne Scott. She now had full legal ownership of the family home.
She died eleven years later. Her 1996 will gave widowed spouse Hemi rights to occupy Dawson Drive until he died or earlier remarried.
When he remarried just over a decade later, Dawson Drive came to be registered in the sole name of Leonie Rahurahu, one of their daughters. She treated it as her own, borrowing against security of the property.
It wasn’t until after their father’s death in 2024 that Leonie’s sister Helena Stirrup took legal action claiming a share of the value of Dawson Drive.
Helena claims that while their mother’s will gave ownership of Dawson Drive to Leonie, half the value was to be shared between Leonie’s four siblings, including Helena. This is disputed.
Helena lodged a caveat against title to Dawson Drive, protecting her claimed interest.
Associate Judge Taylor ruled the caveat remain until the dispute is resolved.
The court was told of offers made to settle their dispute, including a suggestion Dawson Drive be put on the market with Leonie to receive half the sale price (and be required to pay off mortgages registered against the title) and her four siblings to share the other half.
Stirrup v. Rahurahu – High Court (25.02.25)
25.072