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Is it that hard to make a living?
By Sanika Nalgirkar
Last updated on Dec 09, 2023
Faiz Siddiqui lives rent-free in his parent’s £1 million London apartment. The unemployed middle-aged man’s parents live in Dubai and have been financially supporting him for 20 years. But after finally getting fed up with their son, they finally decided to cut him off.
Faiz Siddiqui sued his parents for lifelong financial support.
As reported by Daily Mail, Siddiqui claimed that he is dependent on his “enormously wealthy” elderly parents and wants support from them for the rest of his life.
Siddiqui has a master's degree in taxation from Brasenose College, a part of the University of Oxford, and is in no way unqualified to make a living. He even worked at reputed law firms after he graduated but has reportedly been unemployed since 2011. His parents had been helping him in paying his utilities and bills.
However, Siddiqui's "deteriorating" relationship with his father has "significan't reduced" the amount of financial support his parents have been willing to offer.
A court rejected Faiz Siddiqui’s attempts to live off his parents.
Siddiqui’s claim was rejected after the court took all of Siddiqui’s constraints into consideration and stated that "Parents should be under no legal duty to support their adult children however grave their need."
“What Mr Siddiqui seeks is to foist a relationship of financial dependency on parents who do not wish that relationship to continue,” the court stated. “The appellant is not treated differently because of his health status or disability. They are not relevant features in the context of this case.”
The court stated how this might affect other adult children seeking financial help from their parents.
“It would fundamentally alter the relationship between the state and cohabiting/married parents, enabling all adults to litigate against their parents, whether their parents are cohabiting or not, where an adult asserts that they are contemplating higher education or where there are special circumstances.”
The court also took into consideration that the parents had already done more than enough for their son.
“It goes without saying that the parents are devastated that they are being put through this ordeal by their son and that they are being put to such enormous expense, particularly when set against their historic and ongoing generosity towards him,” a judge stated.
This isn’t the first time Siddiqui has taken something to court.
Siddiqui previously sued his alma mater stating that he didn’t receive the desired level of education and the cost of tuition was unreasonable. He stated that it led to him having low grades in college and an unsuccessful career now. He also mentioned that he might have missed opportunities in law courses in top Ivy League schools because of that.
However, that claim was also rejected by the court as it was established that it was Siddiqui’s “inadequate preparation” and “lack of academic discipline” that resulted in his poor academic performance.
Sanika Nalgirkar, M.F.A. is a writer who covers entertainment & news, lifestyle, and pop culture topics.