Wednesday 29 Feb
We went to see Theo the Lawyer, who turned out to be very impressive, and advised us that olive trees are considered by the courts to be worth 100-300 euros each, depending on their age, cropping ability and service history. We reckon we can make a good case for the trees having been neglected for years, they are very overgrown. When we told Theo we had made 9 litres of oil from our 10 trees last year he laughed in scorn (sniff) at such a low yield.
He warned us that a contract from 1932 does not confer ownership on this man. We need to get a copy of the contract to him for him to advise further, but he said that the danger is that since 1932 ownership may have divided several times each generation, and the risk of paying off one person is that the next year a brother or cousin could turn up claiming equal ownership. Theo strongly recommended doing nothing.
We asked about pruning the trees to improve yield and make a woodpile to season for next year. Theo said this could get us taken to court for criminal damage, if the other man could prove ownership. But if we took lots of photos and said we’d had to cut the dangerous branches, we should be ok.
He didn’t charge us anything for the consultation, and we left feeling pleased we’d found someone who seemed a reliable advisor in this respect.
Constantine then got in touch and said he was at our land (while we were in Lefkas). He’d sent a text earlier asking me to measure the width of the track. The narrowest point was 250 cm, too narrow for a big digger, so we have to decide whether to use a small one and pay for two days, or risk taking a big one across country. Either way, it could happen tomorrow, so I spent the afternoon clearing the site of wood for burning and good stones for walling.
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