My half-brother refuses to share our late father’s properties

I am a 40-year-old man with a younger sister and a half-brother, whom our father brought from a previous marriage. My father married my mother when he was 40. At that time, my half-brother was only 10 years old and mostly lived with our paternal grandmother, only visiting us on weekends. Though he was not close with my mother, she still paid for his education and clothing and cared for him as if he were her own child.

More than a year ago, my father suddenly passed away from a stroke, leaving behind a 50-square-meter three-story townhouse in the city and a plot of land measuring over 200 square meters in the countryside. He did not leave a will and all assets were registered in his name. He had previously said that his children could divide his assets themselves. At the time, no one expected any disputes would arise.

After our father’s death, my older half-brother claimed that our grandmother had promised him the countryside land when he was young, and that our father had only held it in his name for him. Hence, he wants to claim it for himself.

My mother, however, insists that both the land and the house belong to my father and should be equally distributed among all his children. My half-brother disagrees, accusing her of favoring her biological children.

The conflict escalated when my half-brother came to confront us with copies of some papers claiming that our grandmother had indeed gifted him the land. My mother refused to acknowledge them as they were just unnotarized handwritten notes while my sister cried, fearing she would lose her share of inheritance.

I was caught in the middle, feeling both sympathy for my mother and guilt toward my half-brother. There is no denying that my mother is not his biological mom, but being accused of "stealing" his inheritance after she worked hard to care for him from a young age definitely hurt her.

I once overheard my mother telling a neighbor: "When his father was alive, I never treated him differently from my children. Now, when it comes to dividing the inheritance, he suddenly remembers I am not his biological mother."

Since the dispute broke out, our father’s death anniversaries have been awkward as my half-brother would only come by out of formality and leave early.

I have tried contacting him, urging him to sit down with my mother and us to find a solution, but he insists on taking the land, disregarding the townhouse entirely.

Caught between my legal rights and family ties, I do not know which side to take. Taking the matter to court would only deepen the rift between us siblings, but giving the entire land lot to him would leave us at a loss. I am truly conflicted and unsure how to satisfy everyone while maintaining our relationships.