My father’s 6 siblings demand shares of 1,000-sqm land plot despite earlier renouncing inheritance

As the only son, my father was promised the family land and house with the expectation that he would help support his sisters.

When my aunts got married, my parents had to prepare dowries for them. I remember when I was in second grade, my mother had finally saved enough money to buy me a bicycle for school, but then I had to give up on that as it was given to my youngest aunt as part of her dowry.

When any of my aunts needed money to buy houses or land, my parents would lend them money. My parents also took care of my grandparents, lived next door to them and handled most responsibilities in the household.

Then in 1998, my parents bought 500 square meters of land next to my grandparents’ house. Since they had to move away for work, they merged it with my grandparents’ property to create a 1,000-square-meter plot of land for easier management. At the time, no one thought to clearly separate the two plots because we were all family members.

But that was their biggest mistake. In 2015, my grandfather passed away while my grandmother was already cognitively impaired. Since then, my family has continued caring for her and covering all expenses, but whenever we want to complete any legal procedures, we have to seek signatures from every family member. The process can be stalled if anyone makes a mistake on their paperwork or refuses to cooperate.

Recently, one of my aunts died without a will, leaving behind substantial assets. Under the law, my grandmother was entitled to inherit alongside the aunt’s two children.

That was when everything began to change. One of my cousins, the son of another aunt, filed a lawsuit claiming his family had the right to a portion of the inheritance my grandmother received.

That apparently sent a signal to the entire family that it is now okay to demand inheritance regardless of whether they ever provided care and support or maintained close family ties.

My aunts, who had previously signed documents waiving inheritance rights, changed their tune and started demanding that the family land be equally divided, including the half my parents had bought years ago.

Suddenly, it no longer matters that my parents took care of my grandparents and made sacrifices to financially support them when they started their own families.

I have come to realize that inheritance laws do not take into account the actual contributions and responsibilities of family members.

The people who care most for their parents are not necessarily better protected. Everything depends only on whose name is on the paperwork and the legal order of inheritance.

To avoid disputes, families now have to treat one another like legal business partners: lending money requires signed documents, and land purchases must be clearly separated.

They may even need to record expenses spent on caring for elderly parents and have all their assets be clearly documented from the beginning.

Otherwise, once land values rise, family bonds can hardly withstand greed and conflicts may arise over money-related matters.

Either inheritance laws need to change to better recognize family contributions and responsibilities, or family members must accept always being cold and calculated with each other.

Because these days, simply trusting one another is no longer enough.

*This story was submitted by a reader and translated into English. Readers’ views are personal and do not necessarily match Read’ viewpoints.