Brothers go broke trying to seize inheritance from their sisters

My mother has six siblings, including three brothers and three sisters. In the 1990s, due to disputes over their deceased mother’s agricultural land, the eldest one, who was unmarried and childless, filed a lawsuit to demand the distribution of inheritance.

The court ruled that the plot would be equally divided among the seven children and issued title deeds for each share.

While the land was split, the smaller plots were not fenced. Hence, after the eldest one passed away, the remaining brothers began encroaching on his land, building houses to rent out and forbidding their siblings from touching the plot. At some point, one of them even brandished a machete to threaten anyone who dared to build anything on the plot.

They later began to seize their sisters’ land as well. My mother, out of respect for her siblings and a lack of legal knowledge, gradually lost all of her portion of the inherited land, leaving her with only a small shack on the plot. Although the title deed was still in her name, she could not apply to convert the plot to residential land to build a house because her brothers had occupied nearly all of it.

The two brothers were not struggling financially or anything. They were actually quite wealthy because they also received multiple properties from their in-laws. Meanwhile, my father could not provide much support to my mother because our family was poor at the time.

The conflict lasted for a decade until one day, the government decided to build a road that passed through the area. As a result, the family land became a prime location as it was now facing the main road, increasing its value by hundreds of times. Due to its large area and status as agricultural land, the government decided to reclaim it to build a school in 2008. By 2022, the land was officially reclaimed by the government, but compensation was only given to the legal landowners named on the title deeds.

The two brothers tried hard to encroach on every inch of land to build rental houses, but in the end, they lost everything since the compensation would be paid to the sisters.

If the siblings had cooperated to convert the plot to residential land back then, everyone would have been able to keep the ancestral property and would now be living peacefully and wealthily into their old age thanks to its increased price. Yet due to the brothers’ greed, the land is now lost.

I have worked hard to amass my own assets. I believe that by living with integrity and ethics, everything will improve in due time. Nonetheless, I feel like it was such a pity that a valuable family heirloom was lost.

Currently, the children of the four sisters are all grown up, independent, and very successful in their careers, with happy families and wealth created from honest work.

Meanwhile, the brothers’ children are spoiled and end up incurring huge debts. Some of them were even imprisoned due to land disputes and loan sharking. One of them, before going to prison, broke into their parents' house to steal all their land title deeds to pawn for cash.

Their assets, which could have lasted them through several generations, have now run out. I often believe this is karmic retribution for their misdeeds.

They tried everything to get richer, but what will they have left for the next generation now?

Reader Anh Hai

*This opinion was translated into English by AI. Readers’ views are personal and do not necessarily match VnExpress’ viewpoints.