A WAITRESS who was gifted a £650,000 house by an 82-year-old “recluse” claims she won’t move out despite losing a legal battle against his family.
Mariia Romanyshyn, 38, first befriended Richard Joy in 2011 at The Upper Crust cafe in Harrow, London, before he gave her his home.
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Mr Joy’s family won the bitter inheritance brawl to get the property back after his death, but today Mariia announced she would not be moving out.
When asked whether she’ll eventually leave, the part-time waitress told MailOnline: “No, this was his will, why do I need to move out? This is Mr Joy’s wish. That was his wish.
“All the witnesses can confirm everything was done how it is.”
After the pair struck up an unlikely friendship, with Mr Joy visiting the local cafe three times a week, he invited her to join him in the semi-detatached family home.
She said he “repeatedly encouraged her” to move in after she helped him with shopping after he had a health scare.
The retired history buff, who never had children or married, offered the Ukrainian waitress the house in 2016 after she became like his “adopted family”.
She said she never witnessed his biological family visiting the bachelor before he died and questioned the Joy family’s motives.
“In all the time I knew Mr Joy he did not have any family come and visit him,” she added.
When he died in May 2018, Mr Joy, described by those who knew him as a “recluse” who collected military memorabilia, the family grappled to get the property back.
The mum said he would be “shocked” if he knew about his family’s feud as his relatives only appeared taken an interest in him after he passed away.
Richard’s cousin and executor of his estate, Martin Larney, sued the Marriia – claiming he was too mentally frail to understand what he was doing.
She hit back at them, asserting that Mr Joy was sentient enough to follow BBC‘s Sherlock, which is renowned for having convoluted storylines, but eventually she dropped her claim in court.
After the lengthy legal battle most of the estate was carved up after Judge Simon Monty agreed that the waitress’s claim on the house should be dismissed.
Martin Larney and his 87-year-old mum Doreen would take a piece and a former friend would also get their hands on the property.
Despite drawing up the will in 2011, Mariia vows that Mr Joy did indeed gift her the property.
She claimed he “thrust” the deeds of the home into her hands and told her: “The house is yours. I want you to keep the house.”
She added: “He received and felt the care, love and affection from me and my family.
“An extremely high degree of trust was there between us.”
Martin’s barrister Andrew Nicklin claimed Richard was “vulnerable with apparent cognitive impairment” and “dependent” on Mariia at the time.
But she told the court she treated Richard “as her uncle”, while her daughter viewed him “as a grandfather figure”.
However Judge Monty stated that he had been “satisfied on the evidence heard that the last true will of Richard Anthony Joy was the will dated 26 November 2011.”
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