Puna Lot owner stunned to find $500K home accidentally built on her lot. Now she’s being sued (squatters)

[Tulemutt]

Puna … where else?

A woman is headed to court after a Hawaii construction company built a half-million-dollar house on the wrong property, The Associated Press reported.

Annaleine Reynolds says she was shocked to find a home built on a lot she purchased in Puna, Hawaii, and told Hawaii News Now that she doesn’t want the house there and has had to deal with problems like higher taxes and squatters.

https://www.wpxi.com/news/trending/l...O5QSGJOB4SLIQ/

And, of course, squatters take possession.

[Arktikos]

What a bizarre story. Yeah, where else but Puna.

"..To add insult to injury, Reynolds is being sued by the property’s developers. The developers say they offered to swap Reynolds a lot that is next door to hers or to sell her the house at a discount.

Reynolds has refused both offers..."

Perhaps a bit unreasonable? Those are two nice options.

[hotzcatz]

if you buy a lot at the tax auctions and you build something on it within the one year buyback time the previous owner has to redeem it by paying you what you paid at the auction, they get the house. It'll probably be somewhat of the same thing. She didn't ask for the house, didn't want the house, they built it there. It can either be gifted to her or they can move it away and restore the lot to the way it was originally.


It actually happens more often than you'd expect, especially
with Puna lots, although it's usually an owner builder and not a developer. There's not a lot to distinguish the lots apart, other than perhaps the numbers on the telephone poles, but if those numbers are wrong or there's an extra lot between the poles which would throw the count off, well, then there's a house on the wrong lot.

[pj737]

Originally Posted by Arktikos

What a bizarre story. Yeah, where else but Puna.

"..To add insult to injury, Reynolds is being sued by the property’s developers. The developers say they offered to swap Reynolds a lot that is next door to hers or to sell her the house at a discount.

Reynolds has refused both offers..."

Perhaps a bit unreasonable? Those are two nice options.

How is it unreasonable? The developer should offer two options to the owner of the lot. Take the house at no cost or remove it and bring the property to the original condition. If the owner of the lot wants to pay anything to the developer then that's on them and the developer should consider themselves lucky.

[City Guy997S]

Realtor BLEW it, should have just tried to buy the lot for 20-25K more than she paid and don't tell her about the construction mistake.

[teeej]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

Realtor BLEW it, should have just tried to buy the lot for 20-25K more than she paid and don't tell her about the construction mistake.

how would that help anything?

[Tulemutt]

A little more detail to the story today, heh …. Or maybe I should say: ‘oh good grief!’

https://www.businessinsider.com/woma...roperty-2024-4

[stephenMM]

What a mess. If the gal who owns the land can keep things going in court, I can't see how she could lose. The one thing I don't understand is how she could buy the property but still not have a clear title to it? They sorta explained it, but not really. If she bought it, she bought it. If she doesn't have a title, then she didn't buy it, she just thought she bought it. I can't see how a 3rd party would have anything to do w/ this. Auction or not, a fee simple purchase is just that, right? I understand what hotzcatz is saying, but this one is on the realtor, not the auction buyer.

She should be automatically out of the loop at this point. She did everything that was legally asked of her, and she did it all above board. On the other hand, the realtor did NOT do things above board. A mistake does not change the fact that they should have verified that they were building on the right lot, duh. This is why I stopped dealing w/ realtors and just sold things myself. It ain't rocket science, and the title company does all the work.

So did the title company sign off on this?