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A £48million mansion nestled in the hills above the French Riviera must be demolished after a court ruling brought a 15-year legal standoff to an end.
Property tycoon Patrick Diter built a 32,000 sq ft Italianate palace, dubbed Chateau Diter , on the site of what was once a modest 2,000 sq ft farmhouse without first obtaining planning permission.
The building work started in 2005 and in 2009 a group of disgruntled neighbours, led by British millionaires Stephen and Caroline Butt, took Mr Diter to court, deciding the building frenzy had to stop .
In 2015 an appeal court in Aix-en-Provence ruled that the chateau must be demolished. Only the small original house was spared.
patrce lapoirie / Maxppp / PA Images
The so-called Chateau Diter - the 32,000-square foot Italianate palace built by property tycoon Patrick Diter (and named after him) - is set to be demolished after he lost a 15 year court battle with neighbouring millionaires, Stephen and Caroline Butt.
Why? A failure to obtain a building permit for the project, which begun in 2005 and was completed in 2009, on the site of what was once a 2,000-square foot farmhouse in the South of France. Diter had been appealing a court decision in 2015 to destroy all but the original house, but now France s highest court, la Cour de Cassation, has ruled the original decision must be upheld.