Man returns home to land he bought in 1991 to find someone's built a $1.5 million house on it
One man got the shock of a lifetime when he found out that land he'd owned for decades was being built on by someone else who thought they owned it.
In a lawsuit later filed about the incident, it says that Dr Daniel Kenigsberg acquired the title to the property in 1991, and it had 'long been owned' by his family.
The value of the land clearly became quite high, with the lawsuit putting it as over $350,000.
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The lawsuit said that Dr Kenigsberg, now based in Setauket, New York state, had 'no desire to sell the Property nor to construct any buildings whatsoever on the Property, but rather he had a long-term plan of passing the Property to his heirs in the future in its unimproved condition'.
So you can imagine his shock when in visited the plot of land in 2022, to discover a nearly-finished four-bedroom home being built.
According to the Washington Post, the house was advertised as costing $1,475,000 in a listing that's since been taken down.
It didn't take long to find out what had happened - a company called 51 Sky Top Partners LLC believed it had bought the relevant land for $350,000 in late 2022.
All of this had allegedly happened without any input or knowledge from Dr Kenigsberg, the land's legal owner, so he has filed a lawsuit against 51 Sky Top Partners LLC to demand damages and compensation, including the demolition of the house being built.
He's also suing an attorney, alleging that he forged a power of attorney document saying he was Dr Kenigsberg's lawyer and executing the sale of the land.
The power of attorney document was allegedly signed by Dr Kenigsberg in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the lawsuit saying: 'Dr Kenigsberg has never lived in Johannesburg, South Africa and was not traveling there in 2022.'
In a statement to Connecticut news site CT Insider, Gina Leto and Greg Bugaj of Sky Top Partners LLC said they had fallen victim to a scam.
"We learned to our shock and dismay that Dr Kenigsberg, had not, in fact, sold the property to us. Rather, a third-party had impersonated Dr Kenigsberg and – through the carelessness and neglect of the various real estate professionals involved in the transaction – managed to list, market, and sell the property without anyone ever catching on," the statement read.
Leto and Bugaj said they were cooperating with local police and the FBI in a criminal investigation.
According to CT Insider, Dr Kenigsberg said he hopes to pass the land on to his children and grandchildren as a vacant lot. It is next door to a house that his parents bought in 1953.