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A couple from MO bought a lot in FL and hired a contractor to build 5000 sq ft house on it for $680k. The contractor built it but on the wrong lot. They tracked it back to a survey error.
This says they're trying to negotiate a settlement. What settlement? If this was mine, someone would be moving the house to my lot or building me another one. This isn't too different from some of the horror stories you hear about a demolition company tearing down the wrong house.


Missouri couple�s $680,000 Florida beach house is built on the wrong lot
Published October 14, 2014
FoxNews.com

The Missouri family bought the lot in 2012 and hired Keystone Homes to build a three-story, 5,000-square-foot vacation rental for $680,000. (The Daytona Beach News-Journal)

A dream beach house in Florida has turned into a nightmare for a Missouri couple.

Six months after the custom house was built along the Atlantic Ocean near Palm Coast, Mark and Brenda Voss learned it's on the wrong lot in the gated Ocean Hammock community.

Mark Voss tells the Daytona Beach News Journal they're in "total disbelief." The couple own 18 other residential lots in the community. They bought the lot in 2012 and hired Keystone Homes to build a three-story, 5,000-square-foot vacation rental for $680,000.

"We may have moved (to Ocean Hammock) someday. But, with this headache and grief, we're not so sure. The Midwest is looking pretty good right now," he told the paper.

Keystone vice president Robbie Richmond says the company is trying to negotiate a settlement.

"The buck stops with the builder. We know that. We are in the process of trying to schedule a conference call and find a fair resolution without the lawyers," Richmond told the paper.

The couple hired a lawyer.

Keystone and Voss say the error can be traced to a 2013 survey. The mistake was uncovered in September after the house had been rented frequently.

The house comes with five bedrooms, a game room and a screened-in pool, the report said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

It would seem that the correct owners of the lot the house was built on have a pretty good negotiating position right now.

It says THEY own 18 other lots, and it doesn't say it was built on someone ELSE'S lot

It just say "the WRONG lot"

I suspect when they checked with the surveyor, he simply gave them the wrong address off the long list of lots they own

Can't imagine having a house built and not stopping by on occasion during the process to see how it's going. Then again I don't own 18 lots in a development nor would my dream house involve renting it out to other people.

The house is in FL
They live in MO
Doesn't anyone actually read the posts?

You mean MO and FL are not just next door?

If it was a surveying error than I would think the survey company would be on the hook. The builder builds where the stakes are set.

If I'm dropping nearly $700k on a house, I'll definately fly down a couple times during the construction and make sure the builder is on the right track.

i'm crying for them and their 18 lots. boo friggen hoo.

Surveyors don't work with addresses as much as they do a proper legal description.

"100 Main Street" might change several times through the years. But "Lot 1, Block 5, Forester Subdivision Unit 1, of Fugawee County, FL" is pretty constant.

If indeed the survey company staked the wrong lot, and provided a plat of that, then they could be culpable.

The General Contractor is legally on the hook, assuming he hired the Surveyor. The homeowner, presumably does not have a contract with the Surveyor.
Having said that, the GC certainly has recourse against the Surveyor and his Errors and Omissions policy.

What about the owner, who's lot the house was built on, does he have legal claim to the house?

Only in the South, Bubba strikes again.

Depends on the state and state law.

I've seen it in NM.

$350k house built on someone else's lot.

The guy that happened to own the lot was a lawyer. He told them "Thank You! You have 30 days to vacate my residence."

They did, and it pretty much ruined the family financially. They owed the bank money on a house they didn't live in, and couldn't sell.

Everyone thought the lawyer was a chickenschidt. Except the lawyer of course.

It doesn't belong to them. This is from a different article.

Shouldn't be too hard to settle for the couple, they sue to have their earnest money returned, and find a different builder and surveyor, and go through the whole process of picking a floor plan and all the finishing touches and wait 8-12 months, and I'd venture to say visit a time or two during construction.

Where it will get interesting is with the owner of the lot, the builder and the surveyor. Depending on what the owner of the lot wants done, somebody is going to be out some serious coin.

I think it's gone too far for that. They built it as a rental and it's already been rented out a few times. So, they've already taken possession...sight unseen apparently.

Obviously the building inspector didn't catch the error either, but I doubt he would have looked that close at the address.

When I asked if the contractor would declare bankruptcy, I saw that actually happen with a much smaller screwup than this one. I was roofing at the time and I was called to find a leak in a bank's roof. 2 of us spent several days trying to find it without success. There was a brand new heat unit on the roof and I was leaning on it trying to figure out our next move when I got to thinking about the unit itself. I walked around it a few times and looked at the drain holes under the fan. Then it dawned on me that there was no place for the water to go except down through the roof. I pull off the flashing to verify it. The idiot had flashed OVER the drains, not UNDER them and the water was dumping straight down into the bank's conference room.

I called the bank's maintenance supervisor and we met with the HVAC owner for a look see. The HVAC guy was furious with me for tearing off the flashing until I asked him where the water was draining to. Fixing it would involve possibly as much as $5,000 to get a crane and lift the unit off the curb, do the flashing, then bring back the crane to put it back. The next day he declared bankruptcy.

When I was doing mortgages in Oregon the bank demanded a foundation survey before any other phase of construction could begin. If there was a mortgage and FL law is the same it would or at least should have been caught then. I am guessing either way the surveyor is responsible in the end even if he was hired by the General.

My son went to dirt law school, I will ask him and see what he thinks.

Amazing it got past so many people. As someone mentioned, the surveyor only deals with lgal plot descriptions and the property boundaries. In our area, the address is given when the permit is pulled, but that still doesn't guarantee the contractor puts it on the right lot.

It's happened a few times here that I know of and its always been the contractors fault...for not verifying which lot is the correct one. Can be an easy mistake with a bunch of empty lots together.

Matter of fact, my buddy is facing a similar situation right now. They sold their home and bought a lot and house plan from a local contractor/developer. His crews screwed up and started building a spec home on Kev's lot! They caught the mistake and told him they could just start over on the lot but I know this developer and wouldn't trust his cheap ass scrubs to backfill and compact the already excavated area properly. I don't know if my buddy is just going to get a different lot or what.

Anyway, as to RC's post, I'm thinking the contractor is on the hook for this one...

From the other post on this subject.

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida builder is trying to figure out what to do after constructing a million-dollar, ocean-view home in Florida on the wrong lot, authorities said.

The mistake occurred after two state-certified surveyors on the job separately marked the wrong property, said Carl Laundrie, spokesman for Flagler County on the Atlantic Coast north of Daytona Beach.

Laundrie said there were few landmarks in the new Hammock Dunes subdivision that could have helped someone catch the error.

"There is no giant oak tree on one corner of the lot so you would say, okay, this must be the lot. This particular piece of land is basically in a field back behind the dune," Laundrie said.

The 5,300-square-foot (492-sq-meter) house, which was completed in March, includes five bedrooms, five-and-a-half bathrooms, a theater, game room and swimming pool, according to gotoby.com, a local real estate news site.

Mark and Brenda Voss of Linn, Missouri, who had the home built, did not return calls for comment, nor did Andrew Massaro and Brooke Triplett of Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, who own the lot.

The Vosses own the lot next door to the one on which the house was built.

Flagler County Property Appraiser Jay Gardner said the mistake was discovered in September by a third surveyor working in the neighborhood.

The builder, Robbie Richmond of Keystone Homes, who the real estate website described as one of the area's most respected builders, did not return a call for comment.

Flagler County Property Appraiser Jay Gardner said he spoke to Richmond.

"All he wants to do is get it right," Gardner said.

Representatives of the surveying companies on the project also did not return calls for comment.

"It's up to the builder to rectify the situation, and the builder relied on the surveyor. I assume everything is going to be headed to court,{" said Laundrie.

Gardner said he hadn't spoken to the Vosses, but that Massaro was calm when informed of the problem.

'He wasn't tickled but he seemed to handle it quite well," Gardner said. "It happens from time to time."