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UK court orders Vijay Mallya’s eviction from London home in UBS loan default case

Embattled businessman Vijay Mallya on Tuesday lost a legal battle to hold on to his plush London home after a British court refused to grant him a stay of enforcement in a long-running dispute with Swiss bank UBS. 


The 18/19 Cornwall Terrace luxury apartment, overlooking Regent’s Park in London, described in court as an “extraordinarily valuable property worth many tens of millions of pounds”, is currently being occupied by Mr Mallya’s 95-year-old mother Lalitha. 


Delivering his judgment virtually for the Chancery Division of the High Court, Deputy Master Matthew Marsh concluded that there were no grounds for him to grant further time for the Mallya family to repay a 20.4-million-pound loan to UBS, the claimant in the case. 


“The claimant’s position was a reasonable one (that) further time is not likely to make any material difference,” Mr Marsh ruled. 


“I would also add from my review of the correspondence, I can see no basis whatever for the suggestion that has been made that the claimant has misled the first defendant (Vijay Mallya). In conclusion, I dismiss the first defendant’s application,” he said. 


The judge also declined permission to appeal against his order or to grant a temporary stay of enforcement, which means that UBS can proceed with the possession process to realise its unpaid dues. 


The case relates to a mortgage taken out by Rose Capital Ventures, one of Mr Mallya’s companies, with the former Kingfisher Airlines boss, his mother Lalitha and son Sidhartha Mallya listed as co-defendants with right of occupancy of the property. 


In May 2019, Judge Simon Barker had handed down a consent order, allowing the family to retain possession with a final deadline of April 30, 2020, granted for repayment of the loan. That deadline failed to be met, and with special rules in place over the COVID-19 pandemic period, UBS was legally unable to pursue enforcement until April 2021. 

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