Bruce Lehrmann is being sued by the owner of the luxury Sydney property he called home for a year at a cost of about $100,000 to the Seven Network.

The former Liberal staffer has a date in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal on May 23 for a conciliation hearing, it has been revealed.

The action has been brought by Lady Gaenor Meakes, who owns the property at Balgowlah on Sydney’s northern beaches, where Lehrmann lived until recently.

Lehrmann moved out of the home a month ago, shortly before the Federal Court ruled he had lost his defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson.

During the trial, it was revealed that Seven had paid the rent on the luxury property for a full year in exchange for the exclusive interview Lehrmann gave to its flagship current affairs show, Spotlight.

The rent cost the network $2000 a week.

Other claims of expenses paid by the network on behalf of Lehrmann revealed during the trial included picking up the tab for a $500 meal at a ritzy Sydney restaurant, thousands of dollars in massages and a $400 round of golf.

Meakes is the partner of champion sailor Mark Richards.

He is one of the world’s most awarded and recognised yachtsmen and a long-time skipper of Sydney-Hobart stalwart Wild Oats XI.

Details of her legal action against Lehrmann have not been revealed.

Last week, the Federal Court gave Lehrmann until the end of May to decide whether to appeal the defamation verdict.

Justice Michael Lee is also shortly expected to hand down his decision on what costs the former staffer must pay after losing his case against Ten and Wilkinson.

Lehrmann sued the network and Wilkinson over a February 2021 report aired on The Project, which he argued ruined his reputation by falsely claiming he raped Brittany Higgins in a Parliament House office almost two years earlier.

He lost after Lee found, on the balance of probabilities, that Lehrmann did in fact rape Higgins and later lied about it repeatedly, including throughout the defamation proceedings.

“Having escaped the lions’ den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat,” Lee said in his ruling in April.

Ten and Wilkinson separately retained some of the nation’s finest legal minds to defend the case, leading to speculation Lehrmann’s liability for costs could skyrocket into the millions.

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