When going through a divorce, things can get pretty nasty, especially when one party tries to get more than they deserve.

What would you do if your ex-wife was trying to force you and your brothers to sell a cottage on a private island that you inherited from your grandfather?

That is what the brothers in this story were dealing with, so they offered her exactly what she asked for, even though it was not what she really wanted.

Check it out.

Wife tries to force husband’s family to sell their grandfather’s cabin to buy her out in divorce

The brother of a good friend of mine went through a divorce last year.

The divorce was fairly messy.

His soon-to-be ex wife was trying to get as much as she could.

My friend and his siblings all jointly inherited their Grandfather’s cabin a few months earlier.

It is situated on a private island in Canada, that has been owned by the family for 4 generations.

Sounds like a beautiful cottage.

Its about 5000 sqft, and easily worth over $3mil, and their grandfather had several unexpected private offers over that value, all refused with no interest in selling.

The family was notified by her lawyer that she was requesting payment to buy her out of her 1/6th ownership (each sibling owning 1/3rd, and she was trying to claim half of her husband’s share).

They tried to discuss a few alternatives, such as giving her a 1/6th right to usage, but no ownership.

She declined, apparently intent on forcing them to sell it (knowing none of them could afford to front the money to their brother to keep the cabin in their ownership).

Their lawyer (a family friend) did a bunch of work to find a favourable solution for them.

In looking over the grandfather’s will, he discovered that the divorcing brother did not in fact own any part of the island with the cabin on it.

That is weird, but it is working out well.

It seemed that their grandfather bought up a bunch of other islands nearby the cabin, and willed them to his grandchildren separately.

He only owned a small nearby island, made up of rocks and gravel.

Not big enough to build on, and not worth any money at all.

Not wanting to give her anything at all.

They made her an offer (attempting to look like they were giving her more than she deserved, and with the appearance of being desperate to keep ownership of the cabin), to give her 75% usage rights of “the island”, for 25 years, with no ownership.

In the offer, they named the worthless island by its legal land title name.

She thinks she is getting quite the deal here.

She made a counter offer, which was identical, but she wanted to add her rights to rent the island out for profit, and she wanted choice over her time allocation, which she drafted in the offer.

They agreed.

Apparently her new boyfriend was more interested in the cabin than the money.

They mailed her a set of keys for “the cabin” (they were keys for a master lock for their lifejacket storage box on the dock at shore), as well as a fake key with a bright-yellow floating foam keychain, to give her the impression that there would be a boat available to get to the island.

They allowed her to believe her deal was for the cabin’s island for quite a while, as the divorce was still not finalized.

Her first weekend with “the island” was a long weekend, and she invited her family out, along with her new boyfriend.

A 400km drive.

And were greeted by my friend’s dad and their lawyer.

The whole thing was planned by their lawyer, who I am fairly good friends with as well.

That would have been so funny to see.

He tells me that her family was stranded on the island for hours, as they hired a barge to ferry them over, and they waited until the barge left before going over the details of what she agreed to.

He says she attempted legal action once more after that, accusing the family of fabricating the will after the fact.

Apparently her lawyer dropped the case before it even started.

That is too funny, and exactly what she deserves for trying to force them to sell the family cottage.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

This guy knows someone who went through something similar.

In America, inherited property is not communal property.

This person says inheritance is not split in a divorce.

Indeed she does.

This is one way to look at it.

Glad to see she ended up with almost nothing.

Divorce is such a pain in the rear.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.