A sad reality in the world is that while inheritance is meant to be a blessing, it can often cause serious conflict within a family.

What would you do if you inherited a portion of a family campground from your grandmother, but then your uncles (who got the rest) tried to force you to give it to them (or sell it for a fraction of its value)?

That is what happened to the young man in this story, but he stood his ground and refused to sell. The issue eventually got taken to court to be sold. In the process, however, the whole family turned on him, and now he wonders if it was worth it.

Sometimes it is better to lose a battle in order to maintain a healthy relationship with your family. Other times, it is best to fight for your rights regardless of the cost. Check out the story below and see what you think this guy should have done.

AITAH for not willingly giving my inheritance to my Uncle

In 2019 my Grandmother had transferred the family camp into her 5 remaining living children’s names, which gave everyone 1/6 of a share.

That is quite a nice inheritance, but why wasn’t he told about it?

My father died in 2012 and my brother and I each were given a half of his 1/6 share.

I did not find this out until 2023 after my grandmother passed. I was first told about it by my Uncle Bob.

They can’t just decide this on his behalf.

He had told me that all the siblings had a meeting (they did not include me or my brother) and agreed to “sell” the camp to my Uncle Tom.

They thought all they needed was the majority to be in agreement of what to do with the camp. He told me they had contacted a lawyer and would let me know when I needed to sign off.

He needs time to think about this.

I was shocked by the information and just said ok. After thinking about it for a bit i knew i did not want to sell or give away my share.

This caused a huge fight within the family. I wanted the opportunity to buy the camp same as they had given Tom.

Well, this is clearly not how Grandma set things up.

I was told that a grandchild should not own it and that it was just for the siblings. There was jealousy that my brother and I were included in the camp along with the will.

But this was not my grandma favoring us, it was because our father was gone. They could have easily passed anything they wanted directly to their kids.

I get that this is a contentious situation, but there is no reason to be mean.

For almost a year there was many phone calls made by my Aunt Karen with accusations and insults.

My uncle Bob was the only one with was ok with me owning it. One uncle never voiced an opinion. In the end all of my aunts and uncles and brother sold or gave their shares to Tom.

Good, hopefully they can work this out.

Tom reached out to try to buy me out. I said I wanted to keep my share. We agreed to meet at his house to discuss moving forward.

I suggested that I put my own camp on the property and I would let him have sole possession of the existing camp.

Wow, he escalated this issue to the courts.

He seemed to be OK with that idea, but said he would be in contact. He never did call or text, the next communication I received was from the sheriff’s department serving me legal papers that he was suing me for a Partition Action.

We live in Pennsylvania and basically if you do not want to own property with another person and they refuse to sell, you can sue them in court and go through the process for someone to buy each other out.

 

We spent almost 2 years in court. He refused to sell his shares, but also refused to buy me out at a fair market price. We both had to get appraisals of the property.

While he withheld information about the lots that were rented out and had yearly cash flow, his appraisal came in at $50k.

That is a pretty big discrepancy.

My appraiser valued it at $75k and had very good explanations on how he came to that number. I offered Tom $10k to buy me out or I offered to buy him out at $100k. He declined both offers.

This is how unreasonable he was to work with. There is so much more to tell but it would be a book!

If you only own a small portion, you don’t get a say in the rest.

We eventually got to the point in the court system that he had to buy or sell or the court awards it to the highest bidder.

With me only owning 1/12 of a share it was not really a fair fight. He did finally agree to buy me out at $13k or I would keep raising my bid.

It sounds like everyone disagreed with this guy. Maybe he was in the wrong.

Ultimately this camp tore my family apart. It showed true colors of alot of people, including my own mother who sided with my Dad’s family who up until he died she barely talked to and had nothing good to say about any of them.

She told me I was in the wrong and that the camp was my dad’s inheritance, not mine. But that is completely wrong.

Yes, Grandma clearly wanted these two grandkids to have his share.

My dad died in 2012. My grandma transferred it in 2019. She gave it to me, my dad was gone. She always told me that my brother and I would inherit what my dad would have, I just didn’t know exactly what that would be.

It hurts because I loved my aunts and uncle, but because I had a backbone and wanted to keep what was given to me, I basically lost most of my family.

AITA?

Based strictly on what he wrote here, no, he was right to stand up for himself. The problem I have, however, is that it seems like everyone, including his own mother, thinks he was out of line.

This fact points strongly toward the fact that he is leaving important details out or writing this in a way that makes himself look good. So, for that reason, I’d say he very well may have been out of line.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who is caught in the middle of family drama after cleaning out her hoarder father’s home.
Let’s take a look at some of the top comments and see what other people have to say.

I agree with this commenter.

This is exactly what grandma wanted.

The family doesn’t like that he won’t give in to their desires.

Always stand up for your rights.

The property was his inheritance to do with what he chooses.

Grandma specifically left this portion of the campground to him, whatever he wants to do with it is his choice. The fact that the rest of the family wants to do something else is not relevant.

He has every right to stand up against them, and the court should rule in his favor. Sadly, it looks like that is not how the situation played out in this case.