Woman wins appeal against ex-boyfriend to keep 99% stake in 99-1 condo purchase dispute
SINGAPORE — The Court of Appeal has upheld a woman’s 99 per cent stake in a $1.865 million condo even though her former boyfriend paid for most of it, after finding that his evidence for a bigger claim was “inconsistent and unreliable”.And even if the three-judge court had not found that the couple intended for the 99:1 ratio to reflect their legal and beneficial ownership, Justice of the Court of Appeal Hri Kumar Nair pointed out on May 20 that allowing the man’s claim for a bigger share would amount to condoning an illegal purpose to evade the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD).The man, Mr Jake Ngor, 35, was also ordered to pay his former girlfriend, Ms Millie Wong, 38, $50,000 in costs for the appeal. In December 2019, they had bought a Hillcrest Arcadia condominium unit in Bukit Timah and registered their ownership in the ratio of 99:1. But several months after the condo’s purchase was completed in 2020, they broke up, and Mr Ngor in 2023 sued Ms Wong after a dispute arose over ownership.