Buying property

I cannot stress how unwise it is to go into partnership with a Sri Lankan ESPECIALLY in the tourist areas in the south. I have been living here for 5yrs and have heard of many instances where foreigners have lost their investment here. Speaking from my own experience I am going through a living hell of a time which so far has been going on for just over 5 years now with no end in site at this stage. A short version is as follows.
  My wife is Srilankan we have been happily married for 22yrs, she came from a poor family and we have done our utmost to help them over the years. We decided to build a guesthouse here in Unawatuna and we moved from Australia to Sri Lanka in SEPTEMBER 2013. In January 2014 one of my wife's sisters and husband decided to forge my wife's signature gifting our property to their son. This was done in the presence of a Senior Lawyer here in Galle and there were not witnesses present at the time. I made a police report at the time stating that one of the witnesses was with me at the time of signing and I assumed that the police would investigate. WHAT A MISTAKE THAT WAS.
   Eventually I found documentation that proves that fraud had taken place so I took the evidence straight to the Fraud Dept in Galle. Guess what they were not interested.
    We went to a lawyer showed him the documentation and he had my wife sign her name many times on an A4 sheet of paper which we took back to the fraud department and we had to argue with them to take action. Eventually they stated that they would send this set of my wife's signatures together with a copy of the deed of gift to the GOVERNMENT ANALYST DEPARTMENT in Colombo. It took around a year to get the report back but it did STATE THAT IT WAS NOT MY WIFE'S SIGNATURE therefore fraud has taken place. I have tried so many times to have this lawyer charged but the police will not charge him but eventually they decided to charge the sister and her husband. A court date was eventually made in the MAGISTRATES COURT in Galle.
  Can you believe this THE FRAUD DEPARTMENT made the lawyer who created the deed of gift A WITNESS AGAINST US luckily for us our Lawyer told us to go home, she informed us that if we step into that court room we would loose the case. (luckily for us our lawyer was not from Galle, I have since learnt that if we used a Galle lawyer the chances of winning this case are EXTREMELY LOW because they are protecting one another). We are now in the process of using a very highly regarded lawyer from Colombo because I have also been informed that this Lawyer who created this problem is also a part time Judge. At this point in time I cannot verify this but we do need the best of the best lawyers to help us get through this.
   I have even sent the documentation to the Supreme Court, The Atturney General's Dept, to the President of Srilankan abd to the Bar Association of Sri Lanka. The Bar Association sent me a letter basicaly explaining to me that as I am not a Sri Lankan citizen for them to take action my wife has to make the complaint. So it goes to show that we foreigners that bring in our money really have no legal rights.
    It would be interesting if anyone else out there have had issues re land or property issues to contact me to see how wide spread this proplem is.
    I can say this IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM and you have to get the police informed DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT assume the police will follow up, you have to keep going back and if you feel you are getting no where go to the next level.
      If you are in Unawatuna come and say hi
at No Name Rest, Welladevala Road Unawatuna