Every time I come back from a business trip, he sits down on the couch next to me and waits for me to tell him stories and juicy details from my latest trip. Ever since he was a kid he has enjoyed listening to my stories... and there's no shortage of them. This week he called me and said that time on guard duty at the base isn't passing and he wanted me to tell him a bit about my latest trip: what happened, who we met, and how things are progressing.
So I told him about the last client we took on. Together with his brother, he had bought agricultural plots somewhere more than a decade ago. He had a bit of money and wanted to help his brother. Every now and then he received a little money from the income, not large sums, but everything was fine as far as he was concerned.
About two months ago his brother called to say that he had found a buyer and was demanding to sell the plots. He was fed up with dealing with it, he said.
“So what's the problem?” the kid asks me, and rightly so.
The problem is that the price didn't seem right to my client. He thought it was too low and asked to have a valuation done. His brother objected, claiming that there is a seller with cash in hand and it would be a shame to lose the opportunity. Voices between the two rose, the phone was slammed down, and since then they haven't spoken. The brother sent a notice convening a meeting with the sale of the plot on the agenda. The notice reached my client, surprisingly, only on the morning of the meeting, so he couldn't organize himself.
The problem is that the company that owns the plots is jointly and equally owned by the two brothers. Each has different wishes, and they have no mechanism for resolving disagreements or deadlock situations.
Each side digs in, and the brother who is also the company's administrator threatens to use his powers and sell the plots. My client is angry, and disputes and quarrels from the past are starting to surface... an unpleasant situation.
“So what do we do?” he asks.
“There are a few options on the table,” I replied. “The first is to summon them to a meeting and try to bridge between them and get them to agree either to sell or to keep the plot. The second is to divide the plot between the two of them, which is a process that takes time and costs money, and in the end each of them is left with half a plot and can do with it as he wishes. And there's a third option, if the client doesn't want to try to reach a compromise or get along with his brother: to ensure that the other brother can't sell the plot, through court proceedings that will also cost no small amount of money.
The big problem here is that from the outset they have equal shares and never thought of creating a mechanism for resolving problems and disputes, and now they're stuck with no ability to reach a decision. It doesn't matter whether we're talking about two brothers or two equal partners.”
“Dad, but they're brothers...” he says to me just before he hangs up.
Stories are based on real situations, with identifying details changed. Not legal advice.
Translated from the Hebrew original. עברית