British developer Patrick Diter was ordered to tear down his custom house, which he had apparently built without proper permits, in Provence France, for $70 million.
Diter has spent more than a decade battling for the Chateau Diter, but in December his final decision was made by French Supreme Court of Appeal: the Tuscan palace is to be constructed. Now Diter only has 18 months to absolutely vanish from the 32,000-square-foot building.
According to the Daily Mail, from 2005 to 2009 Diter invested 57 million — or around 68.6 million — on building the house of Italian imported stones.
The property in the vicinity of Monaco includes 2 helipads, a pool with salt water, a mediaeval cloister, a bell tower and a greenhouse, plus 17 hectares of greenery, vineyards, olive groves and lily ponds, based on the rental list.
The house with 18 bedrooms features lanterns, chimneys and frescoes from the 15th century. There is also a lobby, a library, a projection room, lounges, a dining room, a damp room and a kitchen with a wine cellar. There are also other shows.
The house has been a TV, wedding and holiday spot in the past fifteen years, with prices of between 300 dollars and over 1,000 dollars a night. Eight suites of 18 bedrooms have a private garden or terrace, and one apparently has a painted fresco ceiling.
Diter was reportedly given a construction permit — a verbal from the office of the mayor. But before obtaining an official paper permit he allegedly started work on the house. And it is believed that the permit does not include all the big work he has done – it only covered a “small extension,” according to AirMail, from the original 2000 m2 farmhouse.
The issue is also: Diter is supposed to have paved a 2000-foot driveway through protected areas. Now, according to AirMail, it accidentally sends rainwater to the outskirts of the city and causes flooding.
