"An attorney for PJ’s Construction said the developers didn’t want to hire surveyors."
Well there's your problem.
The answer here should be simple... the developers pay for demolition, removal of the house, and restore the property back to the condition where they found it.
They've sued everyone instead...
The lady that owns the property, the people who used to own it, a bank, an insurance company, I think a person that lives on another lot, the person who sold them the other lots.
In all likelihood the lawsuits are a stall until they can declare bankruptcy and start a new company.
But they can't just "restore" the property, it was full of mature native trees/plants and for bulldozed.
Also the reason they didn't "need" surveyors, was lots are clearly marked via numbers on telephone poles. They just read the numbers wrong. Which is even worse.
But they can't just "restore" the property, it was full of mature native trees/plants and for bulldozed.
Oh God.....tree law....I never realized how much I missed this.
Psh, the trees are the easy part, trees (for the most part) stay where you plant them.
Good luck reintroducing the pocono swallow, or even being able to afford to fly a Bird Law specialist out from Philly to determine damages.
Seriously tho, this lady just got a $500k house and probably a 1/10th of that in damages for a lot she paid 22k for.
A house that increased her taxes tenfold and that the developers are saying she can’t have.
It also says this was discovered when they sold the house. Hopefully that sale fell through with no clear title, but someone else may think it’s theirs
According to the article I read yesterday there are squatters in the house refusing to leave
You don't understand tree law. A same tree of about the same size and age must be transported and planted where the old one was. It can cost well over $20,000 per tree. They don't get to just plant a sapling and say "20 years from now, you're all good".
Then it also has to survive the transplant and a fair amount don't, so must be replaced again if they fall over or die from the move.
They couldn't afford surveyors but they can pay lawyers to file a half dozen fraudulent lawsuits?
I hope a judge smacks them.
Didn't say they couldn't afford them. They didn't want to pay that expense
Lawyers cost a lot to win a case like this.
One lawyer to send letters to 20 people demanding they all each pay...
That doesn't cost much, might actually work, and stalls the issue.
And leaves you enough time to close up shop, declare bankruptcy, and walk into court with Groucho glasses saying "your honor, clearly this suit is filed towards Romanes Eunt Domum. The company I run now is Romanes Eunt Domus."
The restoration part is where everyone involved is totally screwed.
Until they declare bankruptcy and reorganize as JP's Construction.
Dear dumbass,
Please remove your abandoned property.
Love,
Attorney with the easiest job ever
Surveyors: Actually a really important job because without them nobody knows where the fuck anything actually is in any precise way, nor does anyone actually know they own the land they think they do.
They also offered to “swap” her for the lot next door. F that, they should offer to buy it from her for fair market value
Or just give the property the owner the house for free in exchange for not suing and cut their losses. Would probably be cheaper in the long run, especially counting legal fees.
She doesn't want the house because it balloons the taxes on the property from a few hundred to thousands per year
First: she has a right to be made whole and it’s not her concern what the people who wronged her have to go through to do that.
Second: she never wanted a house. She had a special vision for the space, a space that has now been damaged.
Third: squatters have rights and she may not be able to evict them. Their rights may take precedence over hers here.
The Title Company has to be sweating bullets right now. It's their whole job to prevent problems like this.
Yeah, they admit in the video that the developers didn't hire a surveyor. The developers are completely fucked here, and I think they know it.
If they had hired a title company, the company would have hired surveyors, so it's pretty much a for sure thing they didn't hire a title company. Developers usually only do that at closing when they sell the property.
This crap happens (not that at it should and you're correct). I know someone in construction. They leaned a property that the title company just... didn't see the lien? Property was sold, The lien wasn't bonded off or anything either.
It got resolved but man, that would have been a mess. I think at that point the new homeowner is on the hook, and would need to get their due by going after the title company?
It's hilarious u think these shady developers hired a title company 🤣🤣🤣
If that house had a mortgage then the lending bank almost certainly required the use of one. If it had a construction loan it too probably required a title search and certification.
Reynold’s attorney said they offered to swap her their lot right next door or sell her the house at a discount. But she 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,” DiPasquale said.
Good for her.
I'd also tell them to fuck off. The only reasonable option would be giving her the house (which she is now paying taxes on and requires work to make it usable because of the shit) or to bulldoze the thing (or uproot the house and move it; whatever gets it off the property) and get the lot back to its prior state.
Keaau Development Partnership sued PJ’s Construction, the architect, the prior property owner’s family, and the county, which approved the permits.
They also sued Reynolds.
The developer knows they fucked up and are hoping one of the people they are suing is poor enough or dumb enough to cave so they can recoup some of the massive legal cost they are looking at. Also suing the kids of a dead person is a little fucked up. Like "Hey sorry that your dad died but we can't sue him so we'll sue you instead."
The only reasonable option would be giving her the house
No need. The house is already hers if the laws over there work as they do where I live. Anything somebody else builds on your land becomes your ownership automatically. The developer knows this and tries to bully and cajole her into getting his money back or at least cut some of the losses.
The still vacant three-bedroom, two-bath house on a 1-acre lot in Puna’s Hawaiian Paradise Park is worth about $500,000. But it could cost a lot of people more than that as they head to court to sort it out.
Wow. A house is cheaper in Hawaii than it is in SoCal?
The housemate of my mother just sold her mother's house in Orange County. 2 bedroom and 1 bath, so smaller, for over $1 million.
Well, sure, if you don't own the land it's built on. :)
Unless you are a native Hawaiian, you can only lease the land for 100 years. Further, the cost of living in HI is way way higher than SoCal because everything has to be imported.
Source: ex-Navy who lived there and used to crash open houses in diamond head for snacks when he was poor.
Hawaii makes up for in fuel costs, power costs, food costs, etc etc.
Puna is a rural area, not comparable to Orange County.
The fuck are they even suing Reynolds for? They fucked up; why does she have to pay for their fuck up?
Reynold’s attorney said they offered to swap her their lot right next door or sell her the house at a discount.
But she 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,” DiPasquale said.
Good call.
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