Tuesday, July 31, 2012

New Land

A little over a year and a half ago Steve and I purchased 9.23 acres of land. The land had a new foundation already poured on it and a new septic tank put in.

Last year my brother, David, and I went out with a GPS to find the approximate property lines and search for any property markers (one of which is a big rock that I picked up to look for a marker under, lol). As we walked around the perimeter of the property we realized the foundation and septic were not placed on our land.

The guy we bought our land from had purchased a front lot and a rear lot of land. His intent was to break it into 4 or 5 lots and build houses. Well it looks like he didn't do his research because in our town you need a minimum of 5 acres to build a house on a rear lot. The front lot had 2.33 acres and our lot, the rear lot, had 9.23. The guy opted to just build 2 houses so, with the Town's approval, he went ahead and poured the foundations. The problem is the foundation for the rear lot was poured where he originally planned on putting the second house (when he was going to divide the lot).  This is on the front lot and not the rear lot.  :(

We were paying taxes on a foundation we didn't even own. After consulting with a surveyor, I was able to show the Town that the foundation was not on our land. Now our poor neighbors who own the front lot have to pay taxes on this hole in their yard that they can't legally build on! I feel bad about this.  Thankfully, our neighbors have been really supportive to us about this mess.  

This leaves us with a mostly wooded lot of land, with the exception of where the CL&P right of way is. I'm planning on clearing almost the whole lot, except where I'll be leaving trees up to block the view of the power lines.

I had called a builder to ask for an estimate of how much it would cost to have a small area cleared for a house, a septic put in, and a foundation put in (all things we were told when we were buying we already owned). I was told it would cost $80-90k!!! Are you kidding me? That's almost what we spent on the land.

Well I don't have that type of money so my attorney filed a title insurance claim because we didn't receive what we were told we were purchasing. I heard back on Monday and was told the insurance company is denying out claim. My attorney is going to see of there's anything we can do to dispute that.

I'm trying to stay positive about this land and I'm hopeful one day we'll be able to build a home on it.  On Thursday, I'll be meeting with the owner of a forestry company to see if they have any interest in clearing the lot.  A friend of mine recently used this company to clear his land and he ended up making a little bit of money off of the trees on his land. David and I went out on Sunday and threw markers up around our property lines. There seem to be some nice big trees on there so hopefully the forestry company will like what they see.  Please keep your fingers crossed.

3 comments:

  1. If a realtor was involved, then it's fraud. If it was just you and the owner, then it's a buyer beware. You can try to sue the guy for misleading you but your case isn't as far. If the owner had a realtor and the realtor told you the land they sold you had a foundation and a septic tank, they you can sue the realtor for fraud.

    If you've got a lawyer, sue the owner, realtor and insurance company. Someone is bound to cough up the money. Since you have an estimate of $90,000 for the foundation and septic tank, that's what you sue for.

    If the city doesn't refund the extra property taxes you paid for the foundation and septic tank you don't have, then add the overpaid taxes to the lawsuit.

    In the meantime, consider putting a tiny house on a trailer on the property. It's technically an RV so you pay a license fee for the trailer to the DMV and not property taxes to the city.

    You can rent it out or just use it when you're working on the lot. And you can hitch it to a truck and move it anywhere you want.

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    1. Thank you for the suggestions. We did not use a real estate agent but the seller did. I hadn't thought about going after their listing agent but that's a really good idea. Hopefully we won't have to because our attorney just contacted the seller (former owner) and has threatened suit. A law suit will follow if he doesn't remedy the situation. I think I need to do another blog to update what's going on with the land.

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    2. Any chance you can buy the front lot cheap from the people who can't build on it, then combine the two back into a single lot and then build? Would that be cheaper in the long run than clearing the back lot and having a septic and foundation put in? Would also give you a big honkin' lot. If you get any money from the seller or his agent (the agent who misrepresented the property) you can put that towards purchasing the front lot.

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