Build House on WRONG lot - Sue landowner for cost of house

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.

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

45Smashemflat said:

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

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Under the right (AKA wrong) circumstances.

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

Imissedagain said:

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

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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 .

45Smashemflat said:

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

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It only takes 21 years of adverse possession!

Bald1 said:

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.

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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.

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.

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.

CAJUNLAWYER said:

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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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 .

djohns6 said:

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 .

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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.

Golddollar said:

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.

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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.