Daniel Grollo’s wife and mother caught up in $1.85 million property feud in Victoria
The wife of prominent Australian builder Daniel Grollo — whose company is known for its work on famous places like Eureka Tower, the MCG and Crown Casino — has claimed her mum sponged off her for 20 years in a bitter family property dispute.
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Exclusive: The wife of prominent Australian builder Daniel Grollo has claimed her mum sponged off her for 20 years as a bitter family property dispute boils over.
Katherina Grollo has labelled her British mother’s $1.85 million lawsuit as “embarrassing”, as it heads to the Victorian Supreme Court this week.
Mother Kathleen O’Toole alleges that Mrs Grollo did not share the proceeds of the sale of a property in Melbourne’s up-market suburb of Doncaster that she claims she contributed to buying.
But Mrs Grollo contends in court documents that her mum was an unemployed hospital cleaner who took weekly cash handouts of $500 for years while living rent free in some of Melbourne’s best addresses.
“Katherina would visit her mother at her home on a regular basis,” the defence documents filed by Mrs Grollo claimed.
“Katherina would give Kathleen cash to pay her daily expenses … at least $500 and often more. Kathleen would give Katherina hard copies of bills she had received during the week and Katherina would take those bills and pay them.”
Mrs Grollo, whose husband runs Grocon, a construction company overseeing billions of dollars worth of international projects, details in the court documents all the bills she claims to have paid for her mum, including a $12.16 gas bill on May 8, 2009.
She rejected her mother’s claim that she “promised” to make her the owner of a Doncaster property “on the grounds that it is embarrassing” because it contradicted earlier parts of her court demands.
The Doncaster property was purchased in 2001 with some funds from the sale of Ms O’Toole’s former home in Vermont, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, that she sold after she split from her husband Martin in 1996.
Mrs Grollo claimed that the money from the sale of the Vermont home was to pay back the bills and handouts that she had given her mum in the four years before the purchase, according to court documents.
“The said gift was given in recognition of the financial support Katherina was providing to Kathleen,” Mrs Grollo’s defence claims.
Mrs Grollo claimed that she covered $70,000 worth of bills, did renovations on a pool, kitchen and bathroom on her Vermont property, as well as paying a $9,500 business debt.
Ms O’Toole, according to her statement of claim filed with the court, complained about being unsafe in the Doncaster home in 2012 and she moved into a property her daughter owned through a company in Toorak, one of Melbourne’s most affluent suburbs.
“Katherina purchased furniture for the property before Kathleen moved in,” documents claimed.
The Doncaster property was sold in 2014 but Ms O’Toole said she did not get any of the proceeds.
She claimed she was “evicted” from the Toorak apartment in 2016 as relations soured.
Ms O’Toole, who lives in Birmingham in the UK, has demanded $1.85 million, plus $20,000 in legal fees over the Doncaster property.
She filed new documents in March with her own receipts claiming she kept up the Doncaster property while she was living in it.
The former Maroondah Hospital cleaner, who had a Mercedes parked in her driveway, said to contact her lawyers when News Corp Australia asked her this week if she was disappointed that the feud had gone to court.
“I can’t talk to you, you need to speak through our solicitors in Melbourne,” she said.
A man who opened the door called Ms O’Toole from upstairs when News Corp asked for her.
The well kept street where houses sell on average for $450,000 AUD is about 25 minutes from Birmingham’s city centre.
There were many cars in the street as the UK remains under a relatively strict lockdown.
Mr Grollo is one of Australia’s most influential builders, with projects across the country.
His company is building the $700 million Ribbon development at Darling Harbour in Sydney, which was slated to be a W Hotel.
He has built major office blocks in Brisbane, the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Village and the Eureka Tower and Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Melbourne.
His company also rebuilt the MCG for the 2006 Commonwealth Games and Crown Casino in 1997.
He has been a staunch critic of the power of the building unions and his Melbourne Emporium building site was blockaded in 2012 in ugly scenes that were broken up by riot police.
A directions hearing was scheduled for June 19.
stephen.drill@news.co.uk