Golddollar and Cajun will like this mistake.

Owner of Vacant Lot Sued After Home Goes Up in Error
It's a strange mix-up in Hawaii
By John Johnson, Newser Staff
Posted Mar 28, 2024 6:55 PM CDT

Owner of Vacant Lot Sued After Home Goes Up in Error

New Home Is Accidentally Built on Vacant Lot
(Getty / Jeff Manes)

It's not the easiest mistake to correct. It seems a construction company hired by a developer in Honolulu built a home on the wrong vacant lot. The kicker is that the owner of the lot is among those being sued over the mess, reports HawaiiNewsNow. The saga began in 2018 when Annaleine "Anne" Reynolds bought the undeveloped land for about $22,000. She planned to build on it someday, and was surprised to get a call from a real estate agent during the pandemic informing her that he had just sold a three-bedroom house valued at $500,000 that was belatedly discovered to be on her land.

"I'm like, what? Are you kidding me?" she tells the outlet. The home was built by PJ's Construction, which was hired by Keaau Development Partnership, per the AP. Apparently, the lots look similar in the Paradise Park subdivision, and the construction company says the developer didn't want to hire a surveyor. The developer, meanwhile, offered to give Reynolds a different empty lot or to sell her the house at a discounted price. She rejected both ideas.

"It would set a dangerous precedent, if you could go on to someone else's land, build anything you want, and then sue that individual for the value of it," says her attorney. Now the developer is suing everybody involved, including the construction company, Reynolds, and the county for approving the building permits. Keaau accuses Reynolds of trying to profit from an honest mistake, and she has countersued for "unauthorized construction."

Bekeart

Wonder how often the landowner viewed/inspected the vacant lot. adverse possession

I require the address of property I buy to be included, in addition to survey description.

The location of this property is commonly know to non-surveyors. the city of ****, utility companies, United States Postal Service, and the general public as ##### Street Name .City name, State.

Should have paid for a survey lol

I came home from work one day and there was orange ribbon across the entrance to my driveway. It’s 170 feet long with a 2 car wide turnaround. Someone sealed my blacktop driveway. I know it’s a $500-$600 job because I’ve gotten estimates before doing it myself in the past. There’s a little sign in grass with company name. I call and tell them what they did. The woman initially said I owe them money. I said actually you owe me money for trespassing and property damage because your crew did a horrible job….. they actually did a nice job and I had no intention of paying. I just wanted to mess with the woman because she was being stupid about things. Eventually my neighbor 2 doors down comes over to say they did your driveway instead of mine. I got you a free seal job Then stood there looking stupid like I owed him money or something.

This can easily happen.

New subdivisions usually have very little signage other than corner posts with lot numbers. These are usually removed/destroyed during lot clearing and grading. The property was already surveyed, someone just got confused and didn't read the plat correctly.

Before I got into construction myself, I was a commercial lender for a local bank. I had several large builders and developers for customers.

The builders would buy multiple lots in a new subdivision from the developer (so as to get a multi-lot discount) and then start building spec homes a couple at the time.

One of my duties after making the construction loan (a line of credit) was to monitor construction progress and give loan draws to the builder based on a percentage of completion. I went to check one such project one morning and, sure enough, the house was built on the wrong lot. It was even built on a lot that my customer did not own.

The solution for this problem was simple, the builder simply bought the lot.

The OP's problem is certainly more complex. You would think a reasonable person would accept a lot exchange if the lots are comparable or another lot and a cash kicker for the trouble.

As far as not inspecting the property for over a year, that's not unusual. I have vacant wooded lots in other counties that do not get regular visits.

Not as bad as having the wrong leg amputated.
Local hospital messed up.

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Have Fun/Stay Safe

The whole “adverse possession” thing kills me. Apparently land and houses are things that you can legally steal.

Under the right (AKA wrong) circumstances.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

I have a 4 acre lot in Alaska that I haven't seen for 25 years. I wish someone wold build a nice cabin on it

That's pretty bad . My wife had surgery on her ankle and when she went in that morning everybody that was involved in the prep verified which ankle with her and the surgeon even marked her ankle with a Sharpie .

It only takes 21 years of adverse possession!

Same thing in reverse. Sealcoating was scheduled, Check taped to the front door. Came home to find no sealcoat on the drive and the check was still there. Called them and was told that the job was done and I had not left payment. Hmmm; I suggested they had likely gone to another house with a similar street name and same number. Sure enough, theirs was freshly coated. They came beck next morning and did mine but not before going to the other house and asking for payment, first full price then half price. They refused. I still get their pizza deliveries and have to tell them wrong house.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

A case that happened several years ago was quite similar. Builder built on wrong lot. On closing the sale, they discovered their mistake. Owner of the lot tried to take possession of the new house. The courts rules against her because her lot was in view of her daily drive to work, and she watched it being built without advising anyone. IIRC she eventually ended up with the house but she had to pay actual cost of construction.

Well, from what I see, I'd love to represent the lot owner. In Louisiana I could get the increased value of the lot plus damages for , for lack of a better term, "loss of a dream" Or I could sue for the house but I'd have to pay market for it otherwise it would be unjust enrichment. The builder would be SOL

Just read the story. Seems like the lot owner and her lawyer are doing exactly what I'd be doing. It will settle and the developer and contractor will take it up the chute one way or the other. BUt the lawyers on BOTH sides will make a fee.

And that is a good thing.

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Forum consigliere

This was about 35 years ago. I won't get into details but I was involved with a S&L and one of their loans was for a new housing development. In this case, the entire development was being built on the wrong piece of property, and something like five or six houses were already under construction before the error was discovered. I don't know how the situation was resolved.

When I went in for hip replacement the prep team put a huge red X on My left hip and a huge THIS ONE on My right hip. Surgeon jokingly answered My question of" how many have You done?" by answering around 1500 including the ones that were marked wrong.
Up here I have 2 lots. House and garage on one and a larger vacant one. Have to tell the occasional person that it is private property and then I sometimes hear " the owner gave Me permission". Especially one who was surveying the lot for a developer.

And now the property owner is on the hook for the increase on the property taxes and probably unable to file for the Homestead Exemption since it's not her primary residence . What a mess .

When I had my knee surgery in 2017 I was not going to take any chances. I remembered how Andre Thornton, who was a first baseman for the Cleveland Indians at the time, had a hospital mess up and operate on the wrong knee. I wrote "Wrong Leg" on my good leg. The nurse was not amused and scrubbed it off. But the surgeon later came around and signed the leg with the bad knee. I figured it was an easy way to avoid a serious mistake.

That's not the only empty lot in Hawaii. Reasonable people could come to an equitable settlement so the "aggrieved" lady gets a lot of the same or better value, plus maybe a little extra for her troubles.

Somebody wants to get something for nothing.

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You're shy a few manners.

I worked around an Outpatient Surgical facility in the 1980's and that very thing happened - wrong leg.
However, they did make a kindly offer to do the correct leg at no charge.
As CAJUNLAWYER has said, the lawyers made a fee.

It's interesting the townships and code enforcement have no culpability in all of this.
They do approve everything and are often onsite during the whole building process.
The lot they built on must have been an end lot. To make a mistake on one in the middle would be obvious to see in the initial planning. End lots are normally larger and are worth more than most other lots.

In the past I have cleared lots of trees and code enforcement shows up for a look around and what is expected.

Maybe that lot is something special to that woman.
Maybe it has a unique view or maybe it was given to her by her grandfather.
There a lot of possibilities.
I don't blame her for standing her ground. (No pun intended.)

Speaking of Alaska. The surveys in Alaska are often inaccurate and we knew of a guy who built his home with ten feet of it over the lot line. He had to tear it down when they couldn't strike a deal for the mistake.

Complain to Charge Nurse and report this conduct to Board of Nursing.

Bekeart

In Minnesota, and I assume in most states, there is no adverse possession of platted property.

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Not in jail.

So many checks and balances between the contractor, building officials, title company, etc., it’s interesting to see how this can still happen.

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213th FBINA

My folks first house we found out that 10 feet of lawn and 5 feet of the house was on the neighbor's land. He sold it to us for $1.

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The best I can with what I got

Real simple. Remove the house. Landowner does not benefit.

Similar here. I get items for an address same as mine. The difference is I am XXth AVE NE they are the same but NW.

If someone builds a fence on my property, I’m pretty sure it is now my fence. I can tear it down, I can paint it, I can lock the gate etc……. Why would building a structure (house) on my property be different? I recently bought a few acres next to my cabin. 350’ of road frontage. Seller did not want to pay for a survey. I was able to find old steel pipe corner markers and was happy with that because other end butted up against property I already owned. Next to that there is a small 150’ strip that touches road which another neighbor owns. Most of his property (over 1000ac) is up above or behind. I told him I found the pins but it sure didn’t look like he had 150’ before the next lot which has a house on lt. He said that houses gravel driveway was on his property as well as the swing set and dog run. I asked if the homeowner was aware. He said no and I don’t have the heart to tell them. He said eventually he’d work something out with them but didn’t think they had the money to buy it.

A few hours with a D9 will fix any increase in property value.

My bet is both the developer and the builder will declare bankruptcy to dodge liability.

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Release the Kraken

If it was a vacant lot she wouldn't have the homestead exemption in the first place-but you raise an interesting point-who is responsible for the taxes on a non owner occupied dwelling? What about the lender that financed the build-now has collateral sitting on a piece on non owned property. Again, the lawyers will make out like bandits
Like us or hate us, this is the kind of nonsense you need us for.

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Forum consigliere

Caj - glad you are here for us

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Some collect art; I shoot it!

Hmmmm, I bought some Ocean Front property in Arizona some time back. Haven't seen it yet,......... you reckon I need a lawyer just in case somebody is squatting on it?

Might wanna check lol

Yeah, I've seen some doozies. One of my surveyor friends showed a subdivision plat to me that had to be recorded to correct errors that were made on the whole block. What happened is that the lot lines were laid out perpendicular to the street, but all of the houses were built at such angles that they ended up crossing over lot lines. So all up and down the street each homeowner gave and received deeds for little triangles of land so that each house could be totally enclosed within a lot owned by the homeowner.

I used to come across all kinds of errors in the land records. Somewhere in the chain of title a line in a deed would be omitted, or somebody combined the bearing of one call with the distance for the next call. Unless somebody sits down, does a line by line review of description in the current deed with a known correct description from the past, these errors get passed along for decades.

Locally the Highway Department claims easement "30 feet from highway center line".
( It is for a rural road in the county.)

Deceased surveyor wrote a plat citing "60 feet from highway center line."
(I believe the plat along the same highway, was for a sub division.)

A friend recently bought one of the platted lots with the 60 foot citation.

Bekeart

But sometimes these cases have a happy ending. Back when I was working I was examining the title to a commercial property, and I determined that the building extended outside the property described in the current deed. Since there was a title issue, the first thought was that there was going to have to be a quiet title action in court based on adverse possession from the building being on the adjacent parcel of land. That would take a lot of time and money.

I went back through the chain of title and finally came to an Equity case that distributed the property of somebody back in the 1800s. The Court order from that case decreed that the two properties under the subject building were to be conveyed, but for some reason the deed from the Trustee only contained one legal description. Armed with this information, I took it to one of the partners in the real estate department and we were able to get a hearing in chambers with a Circuit Court judge.

I got to explain everything to the judge, and he issued a Court order that appointed the partner and me as Substitute Trustees for that old Equity case. We executed a Confirmatory and Corrective Deed that contained both legal descriptions that should have been included in the old deed from the original Trustee, and that put the proper real estate under the subject building. The title issue was resolved with the Confirmatory and Corrective Deed I signed that was issued under a case that took place before my grandfather was born.

Several years ago in a county just west of Richmond, a roofing contractor showed up at the wrong house. They stripped all the slate off and shingled it. I don’t remember the outcome.

Earlier this week JR asked me what the flags were in our front yard. The city had placed utility markers (yellow-natural gas and blue-potable water) on painted lines from the curb to my porch.

While I was outside my next door neighbor came over and said the company he had contracted to put in a dry well in his back yard called 8-1-1 and my lawn got flagged by mistake. He pulled the flags and got it straightened out.



Thanks to JR we...

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Years ago I represented some homeowners in a small development on the edge of the Arapaho national forest. The homeowners were in a dispute over the proper allocation of the annual fees to the HOA or adjacent lots.

I always look at the original subdivision filing. This one was a beauty: the thing was layed out with the most intricate meets and bounds description I’ve ever seen. Using the meets and bounds description, I determined that it was incomplete: it didn’t describe a complete block.

Image a property description of a rectangle but missing the fourth side. Its insufficient to convey property.

End result: everyone was mad at me because we needed to file a quiet title action and resurvey the subdivision. Some lots turned out to be smaller or in a slightly different location than the property owners thought. There were some disputes about garages on property lines.

We ultimately got it sorted. I got a fee, of course.

I don't know about Hawaii, but in Texas if you affix immobile property to someone else's real property - you just made a gift.

I took a surveying class once and the instructor told of owning his house next to a large farm. Every year he would "encroach" onto his neighbor's property by 10' and move his fence. He also took photos and dated them on his new fence line. In Colorado if you meet the required provisions, you can legally possess another's property. The main criterias are you must, after the encroachment "be open, be hostile and exclusive" for 17 years and it is yours. In other works declare it as yours openly and refuse anyone else usage.

I couldn’t help myself so I looked up Adverse Possession in NY…… if you continually use someone else’s property for 10 yrs uninterrupted you can make a claim to that property. To me that says if i trespass on my neighbors land for 10 years it’s mine?!?!?!?! I’ve never herd of Adverse Possession before reading this post. It’s crazy to me. In typical NY fashion, let’s reward the dead beat squatter or irresponsible person. Hopefully other states deal with this differently

You think it's bad in NY, in NV it looks like 5 years is all that is required. Mind you, given that 80% of the land here is owned by the federal government, pick your battles might apply.

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Release the Kraken

I remember a case in Boulder where a retired judge had taken adverse possession of a 25’ strip of his neighbor’s property. Boy was the publicity ugly. They sold and left town shortly afterward. The neighbor had no clue what he was up to until it was too late

There was a local case where a man was supposed to have a leg amputated but the surgeon amputated the wrong leg. They then had to remove the “correct” leg. He sued for malpractice but the court threw out the case.
The court ruled the plaintiff didn’t have a leg to stand on.

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Who are those guys?

Ten years sounds like an awful short statute of limitations. I've usually seen adverse possession established after 20 or 21 years, but that's the choice of each state.

Adverse possession is sort of a two-edged sword. It does provide a means to deprive a record owner or those claiming under that record owner of their land. That is probably why there are fairly long periods of time before a person intending to claim land by adverse possession can go to court and ripen his claim. The other side of the coin is providing a means for extinguishing "stale claims" to land and putting abandoned land back into commerce.

However, the requisite open and hostile occupation of the property does not automatically vest title in the adverse possessor. The title insurance companies I acted as agent for would not insure title to land claimed by adverse possession until there was a Court decree under a quiet title action declaring that title to the land was vested in the adverse possessor by properly established adverse possession. And to get that decree is where the fun really begins.

Back when I was still working a client came in wanting to quiet title to a tract of land. There were deeds put on record for something like 30 years, but then there was a gap in the written chain of title of about 120 years more or less. The next deed that could be found was executed during the Civil War. Courts have decreed that whenever the government is being asked to take property from a person or persons, there must be a reasonable effort to identify, locate and notify such parties in interest. The idea is to give such parties notice of the proceedings and an opportunity to attend the proceedings and be heard. Just sticking a sign on the property as a first step is nowhere near enough.

Well guess who got the job a identifying, locating and notifying the descendants of the property owners under that Civil War era deed? After going through the land records and estate records in the courthouse, I established a list of 8 pages of parties who had to be listed as defendants in the quiet title case. And using that ancient device, the telephone book, I was able to locate quite a few of them. Each party we were able to locate received a copy of the petition to quiet the title to the subject property. Posting property is kind of a last ditch effort to notify the persons we couldn't directly give notice to.

Believe it or not, out of those 8 pages of possible interested parties, one party actually stood up and came to court to contest the quiet title action. The court determined that the adverse possession was properly established and title to the property was declared to be vested in our client.

Yes, it was a lot of work, but the law had declared we could do no less. I figure the fact that a party in interest came forward to contest the case proved that we did things right.

< < < < rimshot < < < <

Does this qualify as gallows humor?

Jan 1968.
Newest member of the USAF's Hazard Survey Team said,
"Sarge, can I call my Mom and let her know I may die as
we might have to go to Thule to find the lost Nuke."

"That's classified young man, so just write a letter and give it to your First Sergeant", was my reply.

"What's the point of these rubber suits? If the HE doesn't kill us these suits won't stop the radiation and we'll have a slow miserable death", he asked.

My reply, "then they can just put a postage stamp and your home address on the rubber suit and mail your melted body home.
Makes it easy for the cleanup crew."

Took him a few seconds to start laughing and it
calmed him down.
We were at Castle, on standby, and were told to stand down
not long after the accident.

Some of us had lotsa extra chores besides our main mission.

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Have Fun/Stay Safe

I can relate to this. I've been working for 4 years on historical ownership of several lakeshore properties non Vermont. Ownership traces back to the late 1700's. Many properties do not have bearings - just a direction and distances - in chains, rods, and links. Often the corner reference is a tree that is typically long gone or a rock. Then there's the fact that everything was handwritten and used phraseology that eventually died away.

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Dennis
SWCA #2409, SWHF #353