Yes, Katy Perry Really Had A Law Named After Her Real Estate Battles With Elderly People
A dubious honor if there ever was one…
CarlaVanWagoner | Shutterstock Katy Perry has had a rough few years. Her most recent album, "143," fell well short of expectations, her trip to space aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket was a bit of a PR disaster, and her newly launched "Lifetimes Tour" is going mega-viral for all the wrong reasons.
And amid all that, people are STILL talking about the PERRY Act, the proposed real estate law inspired by her. The law seems to have been abandoned since its launch in 2023, but the criticism it inspired is still going strong.
Katy Perry had a law named after her real estate battles with the elderly.
The law was named the PERRY Act, an acronym for Protecting Elderly Realty for Retirement Years Act and, according to its now-defunct website, would have "[established] 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."
Basically, it would have established a three-day window during which an elderly person could back out of a real estate deal, just in case they weren't exactly at the top of their mental game when they made the decision.
Which seems reasonable enough — even those of us far younger than 75 are often prone to impulsive decisions. But the origins of the PERRY Act are quite a bit more dramatic than just that.
The Act was proposed after an elderly man sold Perry his house while on post-surgery painkillers.
The Act was inspired by what the legislation's website claimed were several incidents of "predatory acquisition, unfair dealing, or elder financial fraud" on Perry's part. Quite bold accusations! But one case in particular stood out as… well, pretty cringey.
It all began back in 2020 when Perry and her husband Orlando Bloom spied a mansion in Montecito they were keen to make their own. The only problem: It wasn't for sale. So Perry made a $15 million offer to the owner, 85-year-old 1-800-FLOWERS magnate Carl Westcott (who incidentally is also the father of former "Real Housewives of Dallas" star Kameron Westcott).
Westcott had been diagnosed with Huntington's disease a few years before and intended to remain in the home for the rest of his life. But at the time Perry approached him, he'd just had major back surgery and was still taking high doses of opioids. Suffice it to say, it's pretty likely he wasn't quite in his right mind.
So Westcott filed suit against Perry's business manager Bernie Gudvi, who handled the deal, protesting that at the time he signed it he "lacked the mental capacity to understand the nature and probable consequences of the contract" due to his medications and "dementia and/or diminished mental cognitive functions" resulting from his Huntington's.
Perry kept the house and then countersued the elderly man for damages.
The judge in the Westcott case determined in 2023 that he was of sound mind at the time and ruled in Perry's favor. So, in 2024, Katy Perry filed the deed to the house and took possession of it, forcing Westcott to move into a nursing facility. But Perry didn't stop there.
Perry also filed a $6 million countersuit against Westcott for lost fair-market rental value, deferred maintenance, and other claims. Westcott's family, in particular his son, Chart, has been outspoken in the media about how they feel about Perry's approach to the entire thing.
"If an old man apologizes and says he made a mistake, and she’s a rich pop star who can buy any other house in the world, you’d think she would let the old man go on his way,” he told the U.K.'s The Sun tabloid. Perry has claimed the Westcott family has been harassing her and Bloom over the ordeal.
The PERRY Act never came to fruition, but it was inspired by more than one case involving Perry.
The PERRY Act ultimately went by the wayside, but it was not just Westcott's case that inspired it. Another that is arguably even more infamous was also involved. Years earlier, she did battle with a bunch of elderly nuns over the purchase of their convent.
The convent was the subject of a contested real estate deal between the nuns and the local Archdiocese. Perry swooped in and sued for the right to buy it from the Archdiocese, leaving the nuns in the lurch.
She won on the condition that she find a replacement for the convent's House of Prayer because the nuns objected to Perry's racy pop persona. She ultimately never came through, and the deal expired in 2019 without anyone making a penny, but not before one of the nuns involved infamously collapsed and died in a court hearing about the deal in 2018.
“The Katy PERRY Act addresses the risks of elder financial abuse, especially as it relates to property and real estate sales and transfers," according to the act's website. It ultimately never came to fruition, but it had wide bipartisan support from legislators in states as diverse as Arkansas, California, New York, and Oklahoma.
But while the will to pass the Act may have dried up, the vitriol toward Perry hasn't. Not only are the cases frequently mentioned online anytime Perry makes news, but Westcott's family has not stopped expressing their fury towards the star for what happened to their father as recently as February 2025. "Katy and Orlando have been unreasonable from the start," he said. "But it’s how the Hollywood elite system works … they treat ordinary people like dirt."
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
