A WOMAN was thrust into a legal nightmare after a builder mistakenly built a $500,000 home on her empty lot.

Annaleine Reynolds bought a small plot of land to host spiritual nature trips and was horrified when she got taxed and sued over the property.

Reynolds, who lives in California, bought the one-acre lot in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2018, with the intent to start hosting women’s retreats.

She said the natural beauty of the land had a “sacredness” that was perfect for meditation, so she signed the papers and shelled out a reasonable $22,500.

Years passed, and a global pandemic put her dreams on hold, she told Hawaii News Now in March.

While she waited at home for the world to open up, she had no clue that her lot was being completely dozed for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house.

She didn’t even know what had happened until a real estate broker called her to say the home had been sold.

While brokering the sale, he realized there was a massive issue with the property’s ownership and said they needed to find a solution.

“And I’m like, what? Are you kidding me?” the horrified property owner said.

Reynolds learned that PJ’s Construction built the house under contract with Keaau Development Partnership, LLC.

The development company bought about a dozen lots in idyllic Puna’s Hawaiian Paradise Park to build homes.

The small lots were divided by telephone poles, and PJ’s Construction didn’t hire surveyors to determine the boundaries of the land.

Reynolds was initially charged a few hundred dollars in property taxes for the empty lot, but that exploded to thousands once the house was erroneously built.

What’s more, Keaau Development sued Reynolds, the building company, and everyone else involved with the property.

A distraught Reynolds hired attorney James DisPasquale for help, but he said everyone just started playing the blame game.

How can your home be sold without your consent?

Your home can be sold from under you for various reasons – here are three key things to look out for:

Tax Sale

• A tax sale is the sale of property by a governmental entity to recover unpaid taxes by the owner who has reached a certain point of delinquency in their owed payments.
• Before a tax sale takes place, there is a right-of-redemption period where the owner can pay off their debt and reclaim their home.
• Each state has different laws surrounding tax sales but in most areas, the basic requirement is that adequate notice is given to the owner to pay the outstanding money, and any sale must be open to the public.

Foreclosure

• Foreclosures can take place when lenders take control of a property after borrowers have failed to make their repayments.
• Borrowers will receive a Notice of Default, triggering the foreclosure process.
• Homeowners in HOA communities can also see their homes foreclosed by their HOA for falling behind on fees.
• This means that even if you keep up with mortgage repayments, you could still lose your home if your HOA has a lien on your property.
• When such a foreclosure takes place, the sale price only needs to be enough to cover the HOA debt meaning that properties can be sold for much less than they are worth.

Property Fraud

• Criminals can use a fake or stolen ID to impersonate a homeowner in order to sell or mortgage homes.
• Typical targets for property fraud include absent owners like landlords, owners who live abroad, and sole owners of unmortgaged homes.
• The U.S. Sun previously reported on a man whose vacation home worth $300,000 was sold by criminals for just $9,000 – they even had the deed to the property.

“There’s a lot of fingers being pointed between the developer and the contractor and some subs,” he said in March.

While the builders and developers fought over what happened, squatters descended on the vacant home and left it in shambles.

Reynolds said one day, she was disgusted to find human feces on the floors of the two bathrooms.

Once the case was brought to court, the accidental homeowner got a massive win as the judge ordered the developers to demolish the house.

He decided that the entire home was built on Lot 114 when it was supposed to be built on Lot 115, the court order said.

The judge also accused both the developers and the builders of cutting corners to save on operation costs.

However, the natural beauty that first attracted Reynolds to the lot has been completely destroyed, and the builders don’t have to restore it.

The judge said that Reynolds could file a suit of her own against the companies and ask for a reasonable amount of money back in damages.

“While we didn’t get everything we wanted, this is a significant step in the right direction; the house is going to be taken down,” Dispasquale said after the decision.

“She has a little bit of closure to that.”