A woman who purchased a vacant lot in Hawaii was surprised to find out a $500,000 house was built on the property by mistake.
She’s had to go through a months-long legal battle over the mix-up.
Hawaii home buyer
Annaleine “Anne” Reynolds purchased a one-acre (0.40-hectare) lot in Hawaiian Paradise Park, a subdivision in the Big Island’s Puna district, in 2018 at a county tax auction for about $22,500.
She was in California during the pandemic waiting for the right time to use it when she got a call in 2023 from a real estate broker who informed her he sold the house on her property, Hawaii News Now reported.
Local developer Keaau Development Partnership hired PJ’s Construction to build about a dozen homes on the properties the developer bought in the subdivision. But the company built one on Reynolds’ lot.
Reynolds, along with the construction company, the architect and others, were then sued by the developer.
“There’s a lot of fingers being pointed between the developer and the contractor and some subs,” Reynolds’ attorney James DiPasquale said.
‘A dangerous precedent’
Reynolds rejected the developer’s offer for a neighboring lot of equal size and value, according to court documents.
“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,” DiPasquale said.
Most of the lots in jungle-like Hawaiian Paradise Park are identical, noted Peter Olson, an attorney representing the developer.
“My client believes she’s trying to exploit PJ Construction’s mistake in order to get money from my client and the other parties,” Olson told The Associated Press Wednesday of her rejecting an offer for an identical lot.
She filed a counterclaim against the developer, saying she was unaware of the “unauthorized construction.”
The aftermath
An attorney for PJ’s Construction told Hawaii News Now the developer didn’t want to hire surveyors.
A neighbor told the Honolulu news station the empty house has attracted squatters.
In the summer of 2024, a judge ordered the developer to tear down the mistakenly built house.
A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on March 28, 2024.
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