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Is My Estranged Family Trying To Scam Me Out Of My Inheritance?

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Location: Louisiana

My grandmother died in 2013 leaving most of her inheritance to my father and his two brothers. Another part of her estate, however, was a plot of land which she divided into five equal sections and donated to me, my brother, and her three kids. The donation was actually done in 2005 before her death. I was only seven at the time, and thus, my father served as my tutor to my portion of the property. Years go on, and I hear nothing more of the plot, my father and his family were not very present in my life, and he has a history of being untrustworthy with money, so I assumed that the land was in his name and he just sold it and kept the money. However, recently him and his two brothers have been contacting me and my brother regarding the land. They have informed me that they lost a portion of the property (which included a small part of mine, half of my uncle’s, and a small part of my other uncle’s) due to not paying taxes. I have been told that it was my uncle’s responsibility to pay it but the delinquency notices were sent to a past address of my grandmother, so he was never made aware. This happened in 2015 when I was still a minor.

The lots also do not meet the minimum size requirements for building lots and thus are worth far less on there own. As a result, my family has been recently pressuring me to agree to sell with them. My brother and I have the most valuable properties as they have access to the road. However, our family wants us to sell and divide the money evenly. My brother and I were thinking that we should sell together, independent of my father and his two brothers. The issue is that my they are stating that we have to either agree to sell with them or agree to meet with a lawyer to re-divide the properties. They’ve stated that our refusal to choose either of these two options would result in them, taking legal action against us, and having a judge re-divide the properties. Our father is also stating that we need to back pay him for property tax (about $5000). My brother and I are now adults however we still do not have the titles in our names and the only proof of ownership we possess is the donation documents. I needed to ask:

  1. Could my family have any legal grounds to resubdividing the property including mine? Is the donation document enough legal proof of my sole ownership?

  2. Do I have any legal responsibility to pay my father back for any of the property taxes he paid? He continued to pay for some of them after I became an adult, does that change anything? Do I need his cooperation to get the title in my name?

  3. Do I have legal grounds to sue my father for part of my lot being lost while I was a minor? I was told it wasn’t his responsibility to pay for that portion, however it included some of mine so that makes no sense to me

submitted by /u/NearbySoil9055
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