Dear Experts,
There are five co-owners A, B, C, D & E of a residential property which went for redevelopment. The redevelopment took 9 years to complete. The redeveloped property is now ready for possession. The property is in a dispute about who will go and occupy it once the possession is granted. It is not practical for all five to stay together and hence three co-owners C, D,& E want to sell the property and distribute the property share while the other two A & B don't want to sell it and occupy to the new property.
The new property is in names of all five co-owners. During the period of redevelopment, the developer provided alternative accommodation to the tenants of the old building. The two co-owners A & B opted the developers' accommodation while the other three C, D & E granted them permission without putting any claim. Due to this all official communication from the developer was only sent to two of the co-owners A & B while the remaining three C, D & E were unaware of what was going on.
Now as part of dispute resolution four of the five co-owners i.e. A, B, C & D have done an internal monetary settlement amongst themselves and have agreed to allow the two co-owners A & B to occupy the new property while fifth co-owners E is travelling overseas and does not know anything about their internal settlement and malafied intentions.
The fifth co-owner E has contacted the developer only to be notified by the developer's lawyer that they are under obligation to move the old tenants A, B, C, D, & E back into the new property quickly and hence will give possession of new property to four co-owners A, B, C, D in absence of the fifth co-owner E.
My question is what are the legal rights of the fifth co-owner E in terms of putting a stay on the possession. Can the fifth co-owner who is travelling overseas put a stay on the possession till the dispute is not resolved? What is the remedy as the other four co-owners are not taking phone calls or communicating anything to the fifth co-owner while he is away and taking advantage of his absence?
