Family and money is a bad mix. Trust me, I know. My brother in law owes us a lot of money, and we are never going to get it. We did a property transfer and decided to keep it just between us, not get lawyers and contracts involed (very bad decision). They got the property in their name and paid us a small lump sum. They kept promising the balance of the money was coming...that was 3 years ago! At this point unless we get a lawyer and go to court, we are never going to get paid. This is my husbands brother who did this to us, so I let my husband handle it. He doesn't want to take his own brother to court, so he has decided to let it go. It has caused a huge rift between him and his brother. They barely talk now. We live 20 minutes away from them but we have not seen them in years. I guess they are too embarassed to show their faces around us. So my husband basically lost his brother over money.
It is so sad when people care more about money and posessions than their own family. We let this situation drop because we want to be the "bigger" people here. Its just money. Be careful how you handle this. You might lose your brother over a boat. Is it worth it? Good luck whatever you decide to do.
