Latest Family Drama From Da Providences’

[Old55]

My Father in law and his brothers and sisters inherited many properties from their Father that are now co-owned by those siblings. The problem is in finding a consensus on if or when to sell and price. Fortunately my immediate family are financially well off however two of the sisters are not. The sisters have enough to get by but one gambles the other is a “hoarder” thus the latest play. My father in law finds out a large plot of farmland he co-owns has been sold. Odd, he never signed any paperwork. Asked his younger brother (a truly good guy) who said the sisters wanted to sell it, “and you know how they are”. Then the real story slowly comes out. Gambler sister finds a guy to buy the property. She tells the other sister and younger brother she found a buyer she will sell to for 750 thousand Pesos. Younger brother says slow down we don’t know how much the property is worth but it is worth well over one million Pesos. Sisters gang up on him, he relents but says to the buyer the price is one million not one centavo less. Gambler sister goes ballistic for some reason. After much more arm twisting and other family drama the sister’s force him into agreeing to sell it quickly at one million. The gambler sister is still very pissed off for some reason.So my father in law finds out about all this and he then says to his younger brother “I think am going to sue the sisters because they forged my signature on the documents. His poor younger brother nearly in tears said “OK I was the one who signed for you because the sisters were so mean to me”. My father in law just rolls his eyes and lets it all go.The real story; Turns out the property’s worth was much more than a million. The gambler sister needed money for gambling debts and needed cash quickly. Gambler sister had a good idea of the property’s true value and had made a secret deal to sell the property quickly for a million pesos claim the sale price was 750 thousand and then pocket 250K of the proceeds.Ending;Supposedly the seller was unable to come up with the whole million so my father in laws portion will come “later” as we all know that translates to never. So it is most likely there was still some sort of scam done.When we read about family grudges and the like in the papers due to a killing or other misdeeds often times it comes from this kinda stuff. In our case there are some hard feelings for what the sisters did but no hate.

[Bruce]

Well, there is another aspect you may not have considered...... And it bears taking care of NOW whilst the father-in-law and siblings are alive. Sell sell sell or divide and record a new deed! Most 'squatter land' is from 2 sources...... government land (which most squatters try to claim) or land that was owned by a family and the parents died years before and their children have also died living it to a much larger number of grand children who may or may not know about the ownership. Think of it as a pyramid from the top looking down to a ever widening base. Once the land has gone this far, it is often too late to sell as the family is so broad the living members can't be found or can't agree to a price. Also added to the problem is that are / may be, many squatters who now claim it was government land and you (the current owner) must evict them all to make the lot attractive to a buyer. That gets a bit costly and may offset any selling profit. So, I suggest your father in law starts to do a forced sale or at least divide the lots and re title them to who would get them. Once his sisters die, you will then be dealing with their children which may make it even harder.....