Postojna: Our Urbas Heritage

Sorry folks, no photos today! This morning it was off to Postojna we went, Janez and I, to meet with a judge in the heritage court of Postojna. Actually, that was only the first of four appointments for the day, but possibly the most important! The judge was cool but not unfriendly, although she was very business-like and did not make eye contact with me at all. Her clerk was more friendly, but still very professional. At least the clerk flashed a smile or two of encouragement.

Our inheritance issue was not as simple as we had hoped. There was one inconsistency in our paperwork and one other issue that forced me into a corner, but in the end it was completed and the judge agreed to rush the final signatures so that we can have them by the end of the week. The biggest surprise was the fee I had to pay to finish the process. They didn’t mention a fee until after the entire process was finished, and then they produced invoices totaling over $1300. Not in taxes, just in court fees! I bravely pulled out my credit card and gulped! Guess I should have known!

After paying, we visited a notary who functions a bit like a combination of real estate agent and lawyer. He advised us that we must publish a notice of sale for thirty days and to notify the surrounding property owners of our intent to sell. We expect to receive an offer from the caretaker of our property (and the adjacent landowner) Albreht Rajko, however the goal of publishing our intent to sell is to solicit higher offers than Rajko’s. The notary also informed me that his fee to prepare this notice will be about 150 Euros and that he will also prepare the contract between the buyer and the seller, but he will not handle the money or coordinate anything between buyer and seller or any other parties. It’s a different system over here and I am learning slowly.

Next we headed back to the courthouse to obtain the names and addresses of the adjacent property owners. Later today I will prepare a letter to each of them. And after we got those names, we visited Rajko in Planina. He and his wife were expecting us and we spoke for about an hour about the entire situation and discussed an offer to purchase the property. We agreed to a basic concept, and agreed to meet at the notary’s office on Friday to iron out details. At that time, I expect to have the order signed by the judge and all of the other paperwork that will assure Rajko that I am authorized to act on behalf of the heirs.

Finally, Janez drove me to Logatec to visit our cousins from Grandma Louise’s sister’s side of the family (Jozefa Milavec Kermavnar). They served us lunch and we shared pictures and memories of our family. I asked several questions:

1. Was Louise (Alojsija) Milavec from an important family? They answered yes, that her parents were rather wealthy landowners and owned a lot of forest land. Her brother John inherited everything and also immigrated to the US (somewhere in southern CA). We must look them up, just to reconnect with more family.
2. Were Andy and Louise (Andrej and Alojsija) closely related, enough to cause a scandal of sorts when they planned to marry? The also answered yes, and agreed that when we meet again in a few days, we will write it all down on paper so we can understand the situation.

We agreed to meet again later in the week, when the rest of their family could also join us. Uroš (Janez’ son) has agreed to accompany me on this visit, to translate and help me understand everything fully. In the meantime, I hope to visit parts of the country – maybe this week I will go to Piran or Bohinj. I am itching to do some photography – the old barns and churches here are incredible, and I have been sitting in one place a bit too long, so I am ready for a change!

I hope to have more photos for you all soon!