Struggle for family property

What was a gentleman’s agreement between my husband and his father has now turned into a tug of war between siblings, writes TATIANA SAINA

My father-in-law was a civil servant for many years and by the time of his retirement, he had bought some properties, mainly prime plots in the nearby district headquarters.

Because he now did not have enough money to develop the plots, he asked his son (my husband) to develop them. I foresaw a problem with this arrangement and advised my husband to stay away from family property, especially because there was no written agreement between him and his father.

I feared that his siblings would not allow him to be the sole beneficiary of their father’s hard work.

Turned tables

“No one has the ability to develop those plots. If I don’t do it, they will lie idle, yet we could be benefitting from them. In any case, my own brothers and sisters cannot turn against me. As soon as I make some profit from the developments, I can share the equivalent of the plot’s cost with my siblings,” he said. 

Although I was not totally convinced, I let him go ahead with the developments.

No sooner had he built a portion of one of the plots than his older sister and brother called him for an “urgent meeting” at home.

The subject of discussion was, of course, their father’s property, which they said was unfairly benefiting one person, who they said was not as badly off as them.

The talks were soft and understanding at first, but as time went by, it got rough and fierce, threatening to create an irredeemable enmity between the siblings. 

I was tempted to say I told you so, but I couldn’t. I had to stand by my husband, at some point even advising him to let go of the properties. He was adamant, insisting that he also had a right to ‘inherit’ his father’s property. It was even worse now that the prices of the properties had drastically gone up with the prospect of the upcoming county governments.

I asked him to negotiate with his siblings to see if they could refund him the construction costs, but he would hear none of it.

Not wanting to take sides, my father-in-law opted for a hands-off approach, leaving his children to settle the scores on their own.

If this is happening when my father-in-law is still alive, how will it be when he dies? I wondered.

After a series of unsuccessful meetings upcountry, the siblings threatened to go to court. That is when my father-in-law finally addressed the matter. He agreed that he had indeed allowed my husband to develop the plots.

What they did not agree on was whether this meant he had also relinquished the plot’s ownership to his son. Of course, the Title Deed was still in my father-in-law’s name, meaning the rest of his children were entitled to a share of it.

They finally agreed to raise money to refund my husband and to jointly develop the remaining areas.

I doubt this will happen anytime soon because some of his siblings have not been able to contribute the required amount. Meanwhile, my husband is getting the little income from renting out the complete properties, as the undeveloped areas lie idle.