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.
Reynolds said she purchased a lot in 2018 at a county tax auction for about $22,500. She had intended to use the land for meditative healing women’s retreats.
“There’s a sacredness to it and the one that I chose to buy had all the right qualities,” she said.
Reynolds was planning how to use the property when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, keeping her in California.
While in California, the lot was bulldozed, and a house was built there. Reynolds knew nothing about the three-bedroom, two-bath home, now valued at $500,000, being built, she said.
She found out about the home when she got a call last year from a real estate broker.
“He told me, ‘I just sold the house, and it happens to be on your property. So, we need to resolve this,’” Reynolds said. “And I was like, what? Are you kidding me?”
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 accidentally built one on Reynolds’ lot.
According to KKTV, the lots are identified by information on telephone poles.
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.
“It would set a dangerous precedent if you could go onto someone else’s land, build anything you want, and then sue that individual for the value of it,” James DiPasquale, Reynold’s attorney, told Hawaii News Now.
Reynolds has filed a counterclaim against the developer, saying she was unaware of the “unauthorized construction.”
Also being sued by the developers are the construction company, the home’s architect, the family who previously owned the property, and the county, which approved the permits.
The home remains empty, except for some squatters, according to neighbors.
The $500,000 mistake is headed to a courtroom to be settled.
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