Bob Marley lover faces forfeiture of Chelsea flat

Bob Marley’s former lover Esther Anderson, 76, faces the forfeiture of the Chelsea flat that has been her home for 52 years later this month.

Miss Anderson, who with four other leaseholders co-owns the freehold of the flat in Cheyne Walk, is facing a possession order over £8,500 unpaid service charges.

She has launched a GoFundMe page to raise £10,000 to fight the action, #LetUsStandUpForEsther.

The case is reported today in the Guardian, but LKP has been contacted by a friend of Miss Anderson and attempted to advise payment of the debts and reconciliation.

Bob Marley’s former partner faces loss of flat where he lived in 1970s

A film-maker and actor who dated Bob Marley claims she is being threatened with the imminent repossession of the London flat where the reggae musician lived and wrote I Shot the Sheriff in 1973. Esther Anderson, 76, bought the flat in Cheyne Row, Chelsea, in 1968.

A film-maker and actor who dated Bob Marley claims she is being threatened with the imminent repossession of the London flat where the reggae musician lived and wrote I Shot the Sheriff in 1973. Esther Anderson, 76, bought the flat in Cheyne Row, Chelsea, in 1968.

Apart from being a celebrity forfeiture, the case is unusual because Ms Anderson co-owns the freehold and will therefore be entitled to one fifth of the proceeds.

It is mainly a row with neighbours over service charges, although fees to extend Miss Anderson’s lease may also have led to ill-feeling.

Sebastian O’Kelly, of LKP, told another newspaper which inquired about this case: “Some of the very worst leasehold cases we see involve neighbours falling out among themselves in affluent areas of London.

“Leasehold laws can then be deployed with really catastrophic consequencies, whatever the 10th Commandment says about coveting your neighbour’s house.”

The case is being handled by TPS Estates, a property management company, and there do not appear to be any loaded legal costs involved. TPS took over management of the site in 2018.

Typically, forfeitures are either accompany – or are prompted by – high legal costs run up against the leaseholder by commercial freeholders.

Bob Marley and Miss Anderson had a relationship in the 1970s that lasted about two years. it is claimed that he wrote the song “I shot the sheriff” in the flat.

Anderson said: “I arrived in England in 1962, before Jamaica’s independence, as a young girl with nothing except my easel, paintbrushes, pageant dresses, a hunger to succeed and desire to put my native country on the map.”

She said she did various jobs but “gave it all up to help Bob and the Wailers fulfil their destiny”.

Anderson added: “I bought my flat in 1968 in Chelsea with the money I made. It has been my home ever since, and I have lived here for over 52 years.”