A HOUSE DIVIDED

So he broke down the top half of the house.

The action did not go down well last week with a High Court judge who has ordered a valuation of the property located in Penal in order to bring an end to the family feud. It all began when the sister Khusmawatie Harripersad, 55, filed an injunction against her brother Amardeep Singh, 49, restraining him from breaking the house which their mother Chandardaye Singh left for both of them to share. The mother died in April 2006. Harripersad and Singh left Trinidad to live in Florida.

In court documents filed in the San Fernando High Court, Harripersad said there was a small wooden structure on the land and whilst she and her brother lived abroad, she allowed a cousin and his mother to live on the property.

A concrete structure was then built after the wooden house burned down in April and the cousin and his mother continued living there.

The house is located at Lalbeharry Trace, Penal, and according to Harripersad’s injunction, filed by attorney Ravi Mungalsingh, she received a telephone call in early July, while in the United States, from a relative in Trinidad, that her brother was demolishing the top part of the house.

Harripersad she immediately made arrangements to return to Trinidad.

She said upon her arrival, she visited the property on July 24 and saw Singh had broken the top portion of the house.

There were construction materials in the yard. She said there was a confrontation and a heated argument ensued.

She then took legal action against her brother and Mungalsingh wrote to Singh about his alleged trespass to property.

He was ordered to cease all work on the property.

The injunction hearing came up before Justice Devindra Rampersad in the San Fernando High Court last week Thursday. Attorney Jeevan Andrew Rampersad represented Singh who consented to resolve the matter amicably.

By consent between Singh and Harripersad, Rampersad ordered a valuation be done on the property and that Singh be given the first option to buy his sister’s half.

The order, however, stated that if Singh fails to buy Harripersad’s share within 30 days after the valuation, his sister should be given the option to buy his share.

The judge ordered Singh to pay Harripersad compensation for trespass only to the upstairs of the house.