Pop sensation Katy Perry has finally acquired ownership of the exclusive Montecito house, having fought the octogenarian billionaire Carl Westcott in court for years over a California home.
Property records indicate that on May 17, Perry utilized the limited liability firm DDoveB to take title to the Santa Barbara County estate, giving a nod to her daughter Daisy Dove Bloom. The deed was only submitted two days prior to Perry’s last “American Idol” episode as a judge, following seven.
The “Dark Horse” singer has been fighting to remove Westcott, a communications and auto dealer, from management of the gated estate for the past four years. Westcott agreed to sell the house for $15 million to Perry’s business manager, Bernie Gudvi, in July 2020, during the crazed pandemic real estate market. Gudvi was acting on Westcott’s behalf. Westcott told Perry’s staff a few days later that he was not interested in selling.
Both sides sued, leading to a protracted legal battle that raised questions about mental capacity and showcased the lengths to which the wealthy will go to lay claim to coveted homes in a tight housing market.
In December 2023, Judge Joseph Lipner ruled in Perry’s favor in Los Angeles County Superior Court, ordering that the sales contract be respected. Perry is expected to testify at a second phase of the trial in July, which will determine damages in the case.
Perry has paid $9 million for the estate so far, according to property records. The remaining balance will be paid once the damages owed by Westcott—which may be up to $6 million—are determined in the second phase of the trial.
Perry’s team is asking for damages for lost fair-market rental value, deferred maintenance and repairs needed for water damage and a tree falling, according to court documents.
Chart Westcott, one of Carl Westcott’s sons, said in an email that Perry’s “Hollywood hypocrisy and fake empathy knows no bounds. Her continuing to seek damages, which will be paid in effect by my father’s grandchildren, is totally heartless.”
Perry couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
With a pool and two guesthouses, the property is surrounded by towering hedges and sits on more than 2 acres in the heart of Montecito, an affluent enclave.
Westcott, who had long vacationed in Santa Barbara from Dallas, bought the house in May 2020 for $11.25 million.
A few weeks later, Perry, who outbid TV journalist Maria Shriver, agreed via Gudvi to purchase it. Perry grew raised in Santa Barbara County. At the time, Perry was expecting a child with her partner, actor Orlando Bloom.
But Westcott’s team quickly attempted to pull out of the deal. In the ensuing legal battle, Westcott’s lawyers claimed that the contract was invalid because he was mentally incapacitated by the degenerative illness Huntington’s disease and by the pain pills he was taking after a back surgery. Perry’s side argued that he had simply changed his mind after failing to find a suitable replacement home in Montecito’s tight market.
While the legal battle dragged on, Westcott moved into a residential managed-care mental-health facility, his family said.
It isn’t clear when and if Perry and Bloom plan to move into the home. Their daughter was born in August 2020, and in October of that year, the pop star paid $14.2 million for another Montecito home on 9 acres with ocean views. It isn’t clear if she plans to put that property on the market.
Perry has already engaged in lengthy legal battles with properties in California. A handful of Los Angeles nuns fiercely objected in the middle of the 2010s when the archbishop took Perry’s offer to pay $14.5 million for their former Los Feliz convent. A widely publicized legal struggle resulted when the sisters instead signed the deed over to another buyer for $15.5 million. A judge decided in 2016 that the archdiocese, not the nuns, was the rightful owner of the land. Legal expenses and damages totaling $15 million were granted to Perry and the archbishop.
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