A Sad Story From a Client – A Lake House Lost…

One of our clients, Joe, told us the sad story of how his friend’s family lost their lake house recently.  The family raised their children at the wife’s parents’ lake house.  The wife’s brother was managing mom’s affairs after her father passed away.  I should say, mismanaging, as it was discovered too late that he had allowed the elderly mother to get a couple of hundred thousand dollars behind on income tax, and maybe other things too.

Bottom line, the lake house had to be sold.  Joe said his friend’s forty year old children cried the day they sold the cottage.  Instead of a 25 minute drive from town to the lake house, now it is an 8 hour drive to spend their vacation in a rented condominium once a year.  The grandchildren and every generation hereafter will never know the family lake house.  Our client and I agreed there is no way to quantify the damage done to his family.

Families need to work together before it is too late!

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Unfortunately, this is not an unfamiliar story here at the Cottage Law Center.  It is the reason we work with families to structure a cottage succession plan that will help future generations plan and manage their family vacation property in a way that will hopefully avoid conflict and… save the family cottage for generations of enjoyment.

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