Last week, Katy Perry’s second legal battle with an allegedly illegal purchase of an octogenarian’s property got started in court. This trial involves a Santa Barbara property she purchased in 2020 from 84-year-old Carl Westcott, who states that he was allegedly of “unsound mind” when he signed the contract to sell the house and tried to leave after the deal was made.
In concurrence with the start of the trial, as Semafor first reported, there is now a proposed housing bill by Westcott’s family that is named after Perry, which addresses elder financial abuse in real estate sales. The Katy PERRY Act — the acronym being Protecting Elder Realty For Retirement Years Act — aims to establish “a 72-hour cool-down period during which either party involved in a contract for conveyance of a personal residence, in which one party is over the age of 75, can rescind the agreement without penalty.”
All this is written on the Katy PERRY ACT website, which also lists the bipartisan support that the proposed bill has allured. “To prevent wide-scale problems in the real estate market, we, the undersigned, pledge our commitment to introducing and supporting legislation that addresses the risks of elder financial abuse, especially as it relates to property and real estate sales and transfers,” reads part of the bill’s overview.
The trial between Perry and Westcott continues.