Judge orders feuding siblings to sell Plateau building they inherited

    When Edvoxia Stavrou Pavlakidis died in Florida in November 2002 she bequeathed the Montreal property she owned - via her deceased husband - at the corner of Coloniale and Rachel to her two kids, Peter (Pangiotis) and Georgia. 

    Peter, it seems, lives in Toronto while Georgia lives in Cote des Neiges.

    Technically the property, built in 1910 with a sweet view of Montreal Royal, could be seen as separate buildings, one on Coloniale and another on Rachel, although Georgia explained that they were actually three buildings and both owned them in undivided co-ownership.

  She saw the Coloniale building as hers and the Rachel building as Peter's. 

  Peter saw things differently, which is no surprise because her and his sister Georgia have long disagreed on every possible thing. 

   Their acrimony led Georgia to seek a sort of property divorce in Quebec Superior Court last October. Georgia launched the court action to order the buildings be divided and sold. 

  The judge was forced to decipher the intention of the written will, as well as the battle between Georgia pushing for the right of use and Peter, seeking a right of superficies. (Don't ask me what in the heck that means.) 

    Peter argued that the properties could be divided but a Plateau borough pencil pusher told the court that such a cadastral subdivision would require modifications to exits, windows, staircases, balconies, the distance between exists and boundaries all amount to trouble and effort far more than it would be worth.  

    Bernard Tremblay, a chartered appraiser, told the court that the property could fetch $2.3 million on the open market as of September 2020, so just to be safe, it should sell for $2.4 million now.

   On Thursday judge Janick Perreault made like Alexander the Great and cut the Gordian Knot, ordering a bailiff to find a realtor to sell the properties at $2.4 million and send Peter and Georgia the cash dollars.

  As a wise Greek once said: war is sweet to those who never tried it.