Property Dispute: Will we find justice?
I'm hoping someone with more legal experience in the Philippines can help shed some light on the following case:
Story:
My gf grew up without her biological mother and father. She was legally adopted by her aunt and her aunt's husband when she was just a baby. Her adoptive father owned two properties in Manila while he was alive (a house and an apartment), and he passed away without a will about 12 years ago.
According to filipino law, if you pass away without a will, all of your assets are divided equally between your wife and your remaining heirs. Her adoptive father had one wife (my gf's aunt), and two adopted children besides my gf (three children total). Therefore, the law is very clear and simple on this: his assets should be divided between his living wife and his three children (25% each).
However, despite all rent moneys from both properties being divided equally for the first several years, his eldest daughter took over both properties during the pandemic and stopped sending rent payments. For the last five years, she has taken all rent moneys to herself and herself alone. Her rationale is that she renovated the units, and therefore, she deserves all the rent money now. However, no one asked her to renovate the units, and whatever she spent on renovations, has already been returned to her 5X or more. Finally, the eldest daughter is lucky she's even entitled to anything at all because in most countries the assets would just pass to the wife and not the children. Instead, she took EVERYTHING for herself.
Anyways, the law is very clear on this. She can't do this, and the only reason she was able to get away with it for five years is because my gf and her aunt (adoptive mother) didn't have the financial resources to hire a lawyer. But ... I do.
I tried reaching out to the eldest daughter, but she blocked me on FB and refused to answer my texts. My next step is to pay a lawyer to send her demand letters. If she neglects to answer those, I'll take her to court for all rent moneys from the last five years in addition to damages for emotional distress. I will also sue for my attorney fees to be reimbursed. My gf was in college when all of this this happened, but she had to leave school to support her family because a big part of her income at the time was that rent money.
I have no doubt that we'll win the case, but what I'm not sure of is how long it will take and how effective the court systems are here at getting things like this resolved. The eldest daughter is pretty terrible, and I'm pretty sure some of her assets will have to be seized in order my gf to finally get compensated ...