A widow locked in a legal battle with her stepsons over the distribution of her late husband’s £7 million fortune, today said they are “looking out for themselves”.
Rosana Berger, who rarely leaves her £4.25 million Surrey mansion, says her £50,000-a-year budget is not enough to survive on. She told how her husband, a property tycoon, had intended a more “substantial income” for her and would be “terribly angry”. This week, the High Court heard how Clive Zola Berger warned his sons Jonathan and Julian, from his first marriage, he would be “watching” from beyond the grave to ensure his estate was divided as he directed.
When he died in 2005, his will directed their stepmother be allowed to stay in the Godalming family home rent-free for life, and instructed that a large portion of his estate — made up of at least £2.9 million worth of shares in property company Circle Land Ltd — was put into a trust and used to “maximise” her income for life.
Mrs Berger, 85, claims her income is nowhere near enough to cover the cost of maintaining the eight-bedroom house and its 30 acres and the £33,000-a-year bill for domestic help.
She is claiming she needs an annual income of £222,540. She told the Standard: “I can’t afford to keep the house. It’s too big for me and I need a housekeeper. I don’t understand why my stepsons are acting in this way.
“They are looking out for themselves and I suppose that is nothing unusual, but my husband would be terribly angry with us all if he knew what was going on now.”
Mrs Berger was told by a judge last year that she had left it too late to make her claim, but at the High Court this week, Lord Justice Lloyd opened a new chapter in the dispute by granting her permission to mount a full Appeal Court challenge to that decision.
In a letter written to Julian, 53, who lives in Italy, before his death, Mr Berger pleaded: “Make absolutely sure the estate is not involved in the arguments and problems that can so often arise in probate. I shall be watching.”
Son Jonathan, 51, who lives in Marylebone, refused to comment.
The court heard that he and his brother insist their stepmother’s income demands are excessive.
