Real Estate Sale - Forgery?

[Raz]

What is the name of your state? This issue is in the State of Virginia.

I'm not sure this is the right category to post this, but let's give it a shot. Fairly lengthy issue, I'll try to be concise but give important details.

My dad sold 28 acres to another family member and was accepting payments of $1,000/month with no interest. Total selling price of $45,000. A down payment of $10,000 was made. An additional $17,000 was paid in monthly payments, leaving a balance owed of $18,000. My father died. There are receipts for all but 2 of the $1,000 payments making up the $17,000 paid. Prior to his death, my father told me that the payments were current except for the month in which he died, so there's no question about the 2 missing payments. By the way, all payments were made in cash.

Now for the fun part. The other family member has declared that he made additional payments to my dad totalling $11,500. My dad's records had no receipts for any of these, and his wife (my stepmother) and my sister who handled his finances neither one was aware of any additional payments made - and he always told them when he got a monthly payment. When I met with the family member, he produced five receipts totalling $11,500 that he claims are from the payments. Here's the problem. All five were visibly forged signatures. Additionally, the receipts that my dad had and the one's that were presented as evidence from the buyer all came out of one of the little books and each had a number. The five he presented were the last five numbers in the second book in the series. The dates on the five were spread out over about 15 months in time. Also, there are previous instances where he (the buyer) signed my dad's name - but he always initialed them showing that he signed them. Next Item: In the contract to purchase, there is a provision that says if the buyer fails to make four payments during the period of payback, the land reverts in ownership to the seller (if the $11,500 is considered owed, then he is more than four payments behind). Finally, the buyer has not recorded the deeds to the property, and we believe he has forged my dad's signature on the deed (this is a supposition not supported).

The buyer has paid the additional $6,500 he says he owes. One of the co-executors of the estate verbally agreed to settle for this and waive the $11,500 in question- (now it gets messy) - but that was before he became extremely nasty, threatening, etc...

My questions are these:

1. What are the chances of taking this to court and winning on the issue of forgery?

2. What about the chances of taking the property back for non-payment as stated in the purchase contract?

3. Does the verbal agreement between one of the co-executors of the estate and the buyer damage the case? The co-executor does not have the power to even sign a check without the other co-executor's signature.

Thanks, and I look forward to responses. If this should be posted in another category please suggest where.

RazWhat is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?

[tranquility]

1. No one can tell what the odds are. You have some suspicious things, but you don't have anything but suspicions. It will cost a bit to get proof.

2. "Getting the property back" is a little harder than you are making it out to be. Even if it was a pure land contract, you will still have issues to resolve.

3. Someone would need to read the contract and listen to exactly what was promised by the executor to find out if this "of and concerns the land" putting it in the statute of frauds. Even then, accepting the money may limit any rights against the buyer if he actually believed he paid the money and you had a good faith dispute.

It's enough money to see a lawyer, but I don't know if anything you do is really going to be worth your while.