Why conflict over cottage ownership is tearing families apart
Before you get too cozy at the cottage, be warned.
Due to shifting demographics over the next decade, many cottages are set to become family battlegrounds—as ownership of vacation properties along with other family assets will be transferred from aging parents to their children.
Barbara Benoliel, a psychologist and mediator who helps many families resolve succession disputes, tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti that cottages are the most contentious part of estate disputes.
"The cottage really represents the whole issue of family … so that's where their history is, that's why it's important," says Benoliel,
The meaning of the property that represents identity is why things get complicated when dealing with family members.
"What we are really challenging is the family identity," says Benoliel. "When we say this actual memory or this thing that we all share is going to now belong to one person. Would you give your family history to anyone? Of course not."
And it's not just the value of the cottage as a structure but everything inside too and what it means to each person.
"The property is not just the property, it's the contents," says Benoliel.
When families in dispute come to Benoliel to help with a resolution over cottage ownership through family inheritance, the results are positive.
"My experience is that families get really generous when they all sit down together and have the opportunity to actually make decisions themselves and not feel things are being forced on them," explains Benoliel.
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this post including how a family with four siblings negotiated cottage ownership.
This segment was produced by The Current's Karin Marley and Sujata Berry.