Registered on title to her mother’s Auckland property as trustee of her mother’s family trust gave daughter Dee Kemp-Towns no rights of personal occupation after her mother shifted to care in a retirement village, with Ms Kemp-Towns also disputing circumstances of her removal as trustee.
Ms Kemp-Towers moved into her mother’s Puriri Avenue Greenlane home in July 2024, assisting after her near ninety year old widowed mother was injured in a fall.
Some nine months later, her mother established a family trust with Puriri Avenue later transferred to this trust.
Ms Kemp-Towers came to be registered on title to Puriri Avenue as one of two founding trustees; the other being her mother’s lawyer, Susan Norton.
The High Court was told Ms Norton arranged to have Ms Kemp-Towers replaced as joint trustee after concerns about her operation of her mother’s bank account, with allegations of improper withdrawals of some $37,000. Police became involved.
Ms Kemp-Towers remained at Puriri Avenue, refusing to leave, after her mother’s September 2025 shift to a retirement village.
Sale of Puriri Avenue is necessary to fund village care expenses.
The High Court dismissed Ms Kemp-Towers claim that the fact her name was listed on title to Puriri Avenue gave her the right to live there.
Legal formalities to have her replaced as one of the named trustees on the title were yet to be finalised.
Merely holding title to an asset as trustee gives no personal ownership rights, Associate Judge Wild ruled.
Trustees must comply with terms of any trust.
While she is named as a beneficiary, wording of her mother’s trust gives Ms Kemp-Towns no personal occupation rights.
She was given two weeks to leave.
Complaints by Ms Kemp-Towers about circumstances of her removal as a trustee were a separate legal issue, irrelevant to her unfounded claim to an occupation right, Judge Wild ruled.
Norton v. Kemp-Towns – High Court (19.08.26)
26.237