The house by the sea has all the hallmarks of a stately home. Although the white paint has peeled and the garden is overrun by snakes and weeds, Jinnah House in Mumbai, which stands on a hectare of land billed as one of the world's most expensive pieces of real estate, is worth US$500 million.
But the prized property, built by Pakistan's charismatic founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah before the subcontinent's partition in 1947, has too many claimants.
Locked in a bitter legal dispute with the Indian government is Jinnah's daughter, Dina Wadia, a US national, who insists she is her father's lone legal heir and the owner of the palatial house in the posh Malabar Hill district overlooking the Arabian Sea.
But the Pakistani government has thrown a spanner in the works. Islamabad wants the house for its Mumbai consulate. And New Delhi, rather than hand it over to Ms Wadia, 88, or nuclear rival Pakistan, is bent upon converting the bungalow into a South Asian centre for arts and culture.
Although the property is in the Indian government's possession, its hands are tied because the matter is before the courts.
Ms Wadia is suing the government over its 'illegal possession' of her father's house. Government lawyers this month ripped apart her claim in a 37-page affidavit filed in the Bombay High Court.