Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Property owner stunned after $500,000 house built on wrong lot: ‘Are you kidding me?’

My father was an expert witness in wood construction issues. He told me about his woman who liked log cabins and bought her self on in the Central Valley, CA. She moved in at night and in the morning saw light shinning thru finger sized holes in the walls! The company that was hired to do a pest inspection didn’t so they had to buy her a new home. The place was infested with power post beetles that had drilled finger sized holes thru the logs.

A few years ago, my wife's sister bought a place with a nice detached garage. She bought it from 2 old sisters, the younger one about 90. She wanted to convert the garage into an apartment. When she went to get the permits, she found that the garage wasn't on her property. Turned out that the late husband of one of the sisters built the garage without permits and didn't care whose land it was on. The next door property had changed owners several times over the years and no one took the effort to find out where the property line really was. It was all assumed. The sisters said they'd deal with it, meaning they would pay for the land, but the neighbor was gracious and just gave them a quit claim on the land. It could have got ugly. It was well over the 20 years required for adverse possession to kick in had they pursued it.
This one got by the title company and everyone else. It wouldn't have been caught but the county demanded that they pay for a building permit for the garage that was 30+ years old. That required a survey.

She's obviously a far left liberal Karen, but probably didn't deserve that.

If the lots are identical she should just swap the her lot with house on it for vacant lot and be done with it, she is unreasonable.

Actions should have consequences. Business owners should practice due diligence.

Permanent improvements done to land should become part of the real estate.

If I was the Judge, the old gal just got a house for free. She can live in it or sell it.

She said in the video they were not.

Yeah, I'd lean towards the side of the issue that believes land isn't always fungible.

Example:
The builder offers you the identical lot next door as a replacement. However, the neighbors on the next lot beyond that one are less than desirable neighbors, heavy drinking, loud parties, pit bulls, etc. That alone can be a deal killer.

Awhile back I heard about a guy paying for a new roof on his house. The roofers removed the old roof and almost finished it when a guy showed up and wanted to know what they were doing to his house. They had went to the wrong house and the owner was on vacation. I imagine things like this happen more often than we think.

I'm guessing she has deeper pockets than me, and is looking at a mortgage anyway.

I'd be totally missed at getting a $500K house if I had to pay the gift tax.
$150k? We have been debt free for years, that free house would either hit my 401 hard or require a mortgage.


SOB would be on the market the minute it had it free and clear.
Hopefully it would yield enough for the lawyers, bankers and me to get back more than I had in it.

My wife's (Cookie) family had some interesting issues. Three brothers (her father and 2 uncles) long ago pooled funds and bought property where they each eventually built a home. Issue was the uncle that did the land transaction only put his name on the land title. Eventually family feuds occurred, and a cousin tried to throw everyone off. Took a court case, long after the brothers were all dead, to draw up some lot lines. The family still fights and attempts to screw one another over every possible issue today.

Glad we live a continent away from it all. Cookie is the only one that can visit all of the extended family on friendly terms, as we stayed out of it.

On another, a distant friend had a huge lean filed on his home about 5 years after the build. Seems the contractor never paid for materials and cleared out. Title insurance refused to cover for about 2 years until the couple made incidental contact with a lawyer that said no problem. Within a week the insurance company covered, but part of the deal was they were not to go public with the facts.

Shouldn't the guy who screwed up the address pay?




This kinda stuff happens.
Our family has worked for a fuel company for years, they occasionally deliver heating oil to the wrong house. It's not hard when you have 10k plus customers. Sometimes it's someone that's not even a customer.

Last fall a competitor filled our daughter's newly bought house tanks.
She refused to let them pump it out, the hoses hold about 30 gallons.
The tank owner ends up screwed.
The made her a deal. Less than rack price!


Occasionally, oil gets delivered to the wrong fill tube.
Either the wrong address, or (unbelievably) some nitwit moved their basement tanks and left (the now unhooked) fill pipes sticking outside the wall.

A good driver will catch it very quickly.
About 10 gallons of diesel sprayed into the basement.
Hopefully!

That is a major mess, if the basement is unfinished.

In one the home was a loss.
As was a fish pond the floor drain emptied into.
Luckily the water was low and it held the oil instead of dumping into the stream.

They built the Freddy's burger joint in Rexburg turned around backwards on accident. The back of the building faces the main road.

Bb

I had a listing and a contract for purchase on a warehouse in a industrial subdivision. It was a build to suit deal where a developer had bought a lot and was building a warehouse on it. They would have me contract them before building got started. I contracted it thru another broker who had a client wanting it.

About two months in I get a call from the other broker asking when the developer was planning on starting his clients building. I told him I had just talked to the developer and they told me the pad was in, the steel was there at the site and they were well under way.

The broker told me that he was just out to the lot and there was anything going on at all. I go out there and sure as heck they were building on the the lot next door.

Fortunately everyone cooperated and we were able to swapped lots. Everyone was motivated and the lots were all owned by the same group of investors. The swapped lots were exact duplicates next to each other on the same street. I could have been a real mess.