CONCILIATORY SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES

Dispute do not have to end in a court

legal counsel Michał Wyszatkiewicz

The case concerns the situation when client needed help in purchasing of the real estate. Unfortunately, the legal status to the estate was complicated, cause shares in that real estate belonged to the many heirs and the inheritance proceedings were not conducted. Additionally, the client wanted to buy only one of the plots of the whole real estate. Another issue was that co-owners (heirs) did not agree what to do with the estate and especially whether sell it or not.

Described case refers to the situation when the client needed help in purchasing the part of the property. Unfortunately, the legal status of the real estate was complicated because the shares in its ownership were a part of inheritance after further deads. No inheritance proceeding has been carried out. Additionally, our client wanted to purchase only one of the plots of the real estate. Co-owners (inheritors) did not agree on what to do with the estate or its disposal. They could not reach an agreement on the usage of the property by one of the owners.

We consequently performed number of activities that shall lead to the point, when our client could buy the one of the plots. At that moment our client cooperated with one of the owners. However, we informed the client that this manner of dealing with the case may lead to the situation in which despite the fact of update of legal status of the estate, the other co-owners will not reach an agreement with our client (whether to sell the plot at all or to the price of the plot).

Therefore, we offered to the client a complex solution under which, we negotiated with co-owners. At the beginning it was difficult, because the co-owners did not trust fully to each other. Eventually the letters explaining the case and phone calls prepared the base for the agreement.

The meeting with co-owners organized in our office was a crucial in solving the case. On this meeting the co-owners agreed the detail of the agreement and, in particular, the price. The contract we prepared regulated mutual rights and the settlement connected with the process of updating legal status of the estate. The case was ongoing for another over a dozen months, but thanks to the reached agreement and the multilateral contract, the base which led to the happy ending was prepared, despite initial conflicts.

In many conflicts, the impulse to solve them comes with the thorough knowledge on facts and a dialogue between the parties. In described case, the legal status of the real estate was updated mainly because of our client – the other co-owners could not make it themselves. Our client could buy the desired plot and the other co-owners received adequate part of the price. Later, basing on the developed way of cooperation, co-owners sold the other part of the estate to the another buyer. Obviously not every conflict can be resolved through mutual agreement, however that should be a target every time the agreement seems to be possible.