Sold Land For $1.5m But Only Received 100k, It's Been 6 Years.

Location: Lebanon

Hello,

I know this is a stretch, since I doubt there are many (if any) Lebanese lawyers here, but I'm feeling pretty desperate and I thought this couldn't hurt.

First, some background info:

My mother owned a piece of land that a real estate agency composed of 3 people were interested in buying for 1.5 million. She wanted to sell it because her husband (my father) was starting to suffer from Alzheimer's, and she knew it would become increasingly difficult to take care of him in the following years.

Fast forward to today, we have only received 100K from them, they were shoved in the bank and we can only withdraw 800$ a month. Needless to say, I came back from my college overseas and am now taking care of my father here.

Here's the story, and I have to warn you it honestly sounds like a movie:

The contract our lawyer wrote explicitly said the amount was to be paid in $, not LBP, which means that the 2020 revolution, which resulted in an over 100x devaluation of the LBP, couldn't affect the contract. The contract specified that the payment would be a monthly sum of around 10% of the price.

It also included a penalty clause of 300k if the buyer missed a payment.

Now, the agency only paid the initial deposit of 100k, and stopped paying afterwards. The agency was also apparently working with a third-party, an individual who owned land right below ours (rent a car business), and was proven to have written a check to the agency to buy the land before they even finished paying for ours.

When we sued them, the agency (made up of 3 guys) said they were being paid by that individual, and upon being summoned to court he said he didn't know anything, even though the land IS NOW HIS. It's registered in his name now.

Our lawsuit resulted in a "black dot" (that's what it's called here) on the lot that makes it so that he can't build, rent or sell the land, but we also can't sell it so yeah.

The lawsuit eventually turned into a criminal lawsuit for some reason (I think my uncle and lawyer were confident they could "pull some strings") and the Lebanese national security went to one of the agency guys' and got a hold of a check the third party guy wrote for our land.

That guy was then summoned to court a bunch of times, always failing to appear, waiting 6 months, being dragged to court by police, nothing happens, 6 months later fails to appear etc... It's now 2025 and nothing has happened. In fact, my lawyer told me last month that that lawsuit was over, and we needed to open a new one, this time with the more typical path of real estate (financial remuneration) lawsuit.

Lawyer also said that in order to sue them, we need to pay taxes amounting to 5% of the lot's cost, so around 70k, which we absolutely can't afford. He said that if we didn't sue them again in the next 4 years (first lawsuit was in 2019) it would be over and the guy would just own the land he paid only 10% for.

I'm 23 now, I was 17 at the time, and honestly it's all so overwhelming. I have nobody to talk to about this, I'm barely able to keep studying at uni while taking care of my father and working at a cafe at night. When I asked my lawyer if there was a way he could pay those taxes and get the money (+ however much he wants) from the lawsuit, he laughed at me and told me he couldn't do that.

I'm sorry if this is long and disorganized, I don't know much about real estate law and this just feels so unfair and demoralizing.

I guess I have two main questions here - If 10 years pass without a new lawsuit, does the land really just become his? - Is it possible to find a lawyer that would pay for the taxes with a contract that he would receive double (or more) once the suit is over?

Please don't hesitate to ask me anything, but I can't guarantee I'll know the answer because I'm new to this and I'm just trying to figure things out too.

Have a nice day everybody, I'm grateful that subreddits like this exist, I can't imagine how many people it has helped in dire times.