Pink Floyd legend David Gilmour is trying to sell a £10million mansion that he doesn’t actually legally own, MailOnline can reveal.
Gilmour, 78, recently discovered that a legal oversight means the six-bedroom property he and his wife Polly Samson have lived in for years is actually owned by the Crown.
Now he is suing the government to correct the mistake so that he can finally sell it.
Gilmour originally bought Medina House, a converted women’s public baths overlooking the sea in 2011 through his former company Hoveco Ltd, of which he was the sole director.
In 2014 the firm was dissolved – but due to an oversight ownership wasn’t transferred to him.
Under UK law unless assets of a business are transferred before a company is dissolved, its assets automatically become ‘bono vacantia’ (vacant goods) and belong to the Crown instead.
Gilmour, who has lived in the property with Samson, 62, for years, says the house was not put into his name because of an inadvertent admin error – and he has now turned to the High Court in London where he is suing the Attorney General.
He is asking for a court order transferring the house into his name so he can finally sell it.
David Gilmour has lived in the house in Hove for years, but it was not put into his name because of an inadvertent admin error
Gilmour is now suing the Attorney General and asking for a court order transferring the house into his name so he can finally sell it.
Medina House in Hove was built in 2020 to replace a 19th century bath house
Legal experts say such a problem is extremely rare.
Nick Brett, Partner at Brett Wilson LLP told MailOnline: ‘Imagine thinking you own a house for over a decade, particularly one worth £10-15 million, but then when you want to sell it, you discover you can’t because in fact technically legal ownership may have passed to the State. It must have come as a huge shock when he found out. It’s an extraordinary situation that is also incredibly rare’
Medina House covers 6,284 sq ft, and includes a courtyard, a covered garden, four bathrooms and four reception rooms set over three floors. There is also a wine store, a snug, a gym, and a library, and one of the reception rooms, which includes a dining room, measuring no less than 49 feet.
His legal action is the latest twist in a property saga that has been fraught with problems from the outset.
The original property was a Turkish baths known as Medina Baths, built in Victorian times, but after the bath, and its men-only neighbour became disused, they were occupied by squatters, and the building was demolished after two fires.
Gilmour and Samson, 61, endured howls of protest from neighbours when they applied to convert the bathhouses into a mega mansion family home.
This was because some neighbours complained that the light to their own properties would be reduced because the new building was higher than its predecessor – something the architects wanted for flood protection and privacy.
Gilmour, who has an estimated fortune of £140million, and Samson were condemned and their plans called ‘appalling and disrespectful’ and opponents scathingly nicknamed the project ‘Polly’s Folly’.
Nicknamed ‘Polly’s Folly’, the couple only bought the property in 2015 and launched a lavish rebuild of the former Victorian Turkish bathhouse
Inside the property, which has had £5m slashed from the asking price, the five bedrooms have remarkable sea views
Other amenities include hardwood flooring and underfloor heating throughout, polished plaster ceilings and walls, log-burning and gas-operated open fires
The home now includes a cottage, dog’s shower room, a recording studio – which was formerly an artist’s studio, ample parking, sun room, a Victorian terrace and stunning sea views
The Pink Floyd legend and his wife demolished the old Victorian structure and rebuilt it
But Brighton & Hove Planning officer Liz Arnold said while some residents would receive less light, this was outweighed by the benefits to the conservation area in bringing a derelict site back into use, and the plans were approved in 2017 – by a single vote.
The bathhouse was demolished the following year, and architect Keb Garavito Bruhn was brought in to design the new residence.
His creation took inspiration from the older building, mimicking its gable, as well as the half-moon shaped window at the top. Ceramic tiles that were originally part of one of the pools were retained.
Many residents began to change their mind about the house once it was constructed and admitted that an eyesore had been transformed.
Gilmour’s haven is not far from Hove’s so-called ‘Millionaire’s Row’ at the end of Western Esplanade, which has welcomed a range of A-listers over the years, including Adele, David Walliams and Fatboy Slim.
The Gilmours put Medina on the market for £15 million in 2022 but later reduced the price to £10 million.
Then the legal anomaly came to light meaning it could not be sold at any price until that issue was settled.
The couple have both previously spoken about their pride in the finished project.
‘It is a beauty, and sad for us that it took so long and was then completed during the pandemic,’ Samson said of the Hove house last year.
‘Our children were still children and living at home when we first bought – and thought we could save the building.
‘Now they’ve flown, so Medina House never got the chance to become our family home. We have a one-bedroom flat [also in Hove], which is enough.
‘Now there’s just the two of us.’
She added: ‘We’ve had so many memorable parties here. It’s amazing to run across the beach for a swim and then hop back to the house for a sauna.
‘Sometimes we’d hop across the beach with our fishing rods, bring back the catch and then cook it on the fire in the winter garden.’
The Gilmours put Medina on the market for £15 million in 2022 but later reduced the price to £10 million.
The former Victorian Turkish Bath was demolished and rebuilt by the couple on the seafront in Hove, despite the opposition of locals
Gilmour and his wife knocked down the baths in 2018 and transformed it into a huge 15-bedroom home which comes complete with a courtyard
Gilmour and Samson’s main home is a farmhouse in Wisborough Green, West Sussex, 25 miles away.
Gilmour’s latest album, Luck and Strange, received rave reviews on its release in September and he followed it up with sell-out concerts in Brighton, Rome, the Royal Albert Hall, Hollywood Bowl and Madison Square Garden.
Gilmour is unlikely to be troubled by the legal costs involved in his court action to regularise ownership of the property; latest accounts for his company show that it has total current assets of more than £16 million.
Last night Gilmour’s manager Paul Loasby declined to comment on the ownership mix-up.