Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz and his wife Claudia are accruing a substantial daily penalty of $250 (£200) for constructing a padel court without the necessary permissions on their exclusive Palm Beach estate. The couple, with a reported net worth of $1.6 billion, failed to secure approval from the local Town Council for the sports facility.
Unanimous Decision by Code Enforcement Board
On November 20, the Palm Beach Code Enforcement Board held a meeting where members voted unanimously to impose the financial penalty. The fine was made retroactive to October 30 and will continue to accumulate each day until the Peltzes either dismantle the court or successfully obtain formal approval for it.
Town records cited by The Palm Beach Post indicated the total fine had reached $6,750 by November 25. Based on the daily rate, this figure is estimated to have grown to approximately $8,250 by the start of the new week. Given the couple's vast wealth, they could theoretically choose to pay the fine indefinitely, though this remains an unlikely scenario.
Avoiding Public Scrutiny and Neighbour Objections
The situation hints at a possible attempt to bypass public oversight. In October, Board Member Chris Larmoyeux suggested the Peltzes may have wished to avoid a public hearing, which is required to obtain a 'special exception' to the town's building code. Such a hearing would have alerted neighbours to the planned construction.
This concern appears well-founded. Earlier in 2024, a separate request by other local property owners to build a padel court was rejected due to neighbours' complaints about potential noise and disruption. The Peltzes' decision to proceed without approval may have been an effort to sidestep similar opposition.
Padel, a racquet sport blending elements of tennis and squash played in an enclosed court, requires a regulation-sized area about two-thirds the size of a standard tennis court.
A History of Violations and Forthcoming Review
According to Board Chair Martin Klein, work on the Padel court began as far back as May, with the couple first notified of the violation the same month. While the Peltzes were permitted to install a large concrete slab on their 13-acre estate in June 2024—which was inspected in October—they later began building the court on that slab without any town review.
Code Enforcement Officer John Moriarty, who first raised the violation at an October meeting, stated his department was alerted by the Planning, Zoning and Building Department in June. The Peltzes did not attend either the October meeting or the November session where the fine was formally imposed.
The board initially gave the couple until October 30 to comply, imposing a $150 administrative fee. As they did not remove the court, the daily punitive fine was activated at the November meeting. A special exemption request from the Peltzes is scheduled for review at a Town Council meeting on January 14. Klein noted that if approval is eventually granted, the couple could petition the Code Enforcement Board for a reduction of the accrued fines.
The Peltz estate, named Mountsorrel, is a landmark property. Purchased by Nelson Peltz in 1987 for $13.5 million, it now boasts an estimated market value of $372 million, making it the second-largest residential property in Palm Beach. It gained global fame in 2022 as the venue for the wedding of the couple's daughter, Nicola, to Brooklyn Beckham. Peltz, the former chairman of Wendy's and co-founder of Trian Fund Management, has not publicly commented on the ongoing fines.
