Man finds family land has been stolen, sold and built upon

[wawa]

Aug 2, 2023 20:43:27 GMT -5 klee23 said:

Aug 2, 2023 19:00:52 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

Might this be covered through a malpractice suit with the lawyer? Someone missed a wrong birthdate, which would be the lawyer and/or title company I would think.

Can't answer re:malpractice but am wondering about the POA with the attorney as well because that seems like the sketchiest part

Combining both articles:

Person in Johannesburg goes before a notary, which forged & inaccurate documents (passport) to sign over POA to an attorney in CT

I'm just curious what vetting process the attorney did to verify anything before agreeing to be the POA. Getting a cold call internationally who trigger my spidey senses and would definitely proceed with caution

Anyway- I do feel like someone local (affiliated with the developer or along the chain of sale) set this all in motion. The owner was was offered $400k and then $350k recently that he had turned down- I think someone didn't want to take no for an answer

From the CT insider article: "Town records point the way toward the story. On Oct. 18, 2022, Daniel Kenigsberg of Johannesburg, South Africa granted the power of attorney – the right to sign legal documents on his behalf -- to Anthony Monelli, a Trumbull lawyer. That same day nine months ago, a firm known as 51 Sky Top Partners LLC purchased the lot from Kenigsberg, or so the land records show, for $350,000."

-how long does it take to establish an LLC? Is it normal for a developer or builder to bother to create an LLC specific to one individual property? Maybe it's because real estate doesn't run that high in western PA that is a foreign concept

It doesn't take that long to create an LLC (you can do it same day in my state if you go in person and pay an extra fee) and yes, that's pretty standard in my experience.
Its a risk mitigation thing so they don't end up losing any other company assets when a single deal goes south and they walk on it.

[mrspez07]

In our CO county, it seems they are reconciling the plats or something. In two cases I know of, one which was my grandma, there was a “new” parcel created in the system that had been part of the existing lot, usually a small piece of land. In the assessor maps, these parcels are shown to be owned by an original or older owner, so I would assume all notices on taxes, etc get mailed to an either long-gone entity or to someone who doesn’t care.
In the case of my grandma, it was an old anticipated right-of-way that never developed and it was her driveway. She had lived there for 50 years but the “new” parcel was under the original person who created the lot, so mailed notices were going to a dead person at a now-commercial business. Then, without taxes being paid, it goes to the tax sale at the county. In this case some guy who owned an assisted living next door buys the parcel and then tries cut off access to the property or sell it at an insane price to the trust (we didn’t find out until my grandma had passed). He was basically holding the driveway and a shed hostage because he had purchased the parcel. The county didn’t do any due diligence to verify use and actual on-the-ground conditions and offer the parcel to the person actually using it.
There’s another one I saw showed up on a lot in my neighborhood, and the lot it was carved from is not the same one listed, I believe the previous owner is shown on the “new” parcel. No idea if the current owners are aware of this chunk of their yard possibly not being owned by them.

[nospaekae]

Aug 2, 2023 14:58:53 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I guess it happens often enough that there's a page for it in my city, yikes: www.nyc.gov/site/finance/taxes/deed-fraud.page

This situation comes to mind which is beyond sad: brooklyneagle.com/articles/2023/08/01/two-brownstones-allegedly-stolen-in-sophisticated-4-7m-deed-theft-operation/

[nospaekae]

Aug 2, 2023 14:36:51 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Aug 2, 2023 14:27:17 GMT -5 BicycleBride said:

When I worked for the City, the surveyors were part of my dept. They were constantly coming in all the time with stuff that had originally been surveyed wrong because it was done by the property owner, or someone who apparently didn't think surveying was hard so didn't hire an actual survey company. In most of these instances it was property owners who thought that they owned city right of way. I can think of only one instance where the city was wrong.

ETA: Also, that group was the group that had to have a police presence more often than not when out doing their jobs when it came to working with private citizens. People are wild.

We recently had to attend a zoning meeting regarding a new neighbor in the process of building that wanted to split his lot in order to sell the extra lot as an additional house lot. Come to find out he had not had the potential new lot surveyed. He instead provided the zoning board with a hand-drawn map with "estimated" dimensions of the new lot. And on top of that, he had already filed an (illegal) deed with the town for the new lot. Our (mostly elderly) zoning commission was ready to approve until the building and planning inspector pointed out the lack of survey and deed fuckery. Neighbor's response? He intended to sell so "surveying wasn't his problem." So many are in the building game to make a quick buck and pass the problems along to the next unsuspecting sucker. We were pulled into the mess because the only spot of land in the proposed new lot that perked sits 20' from our well. Luckily, it was shot down. But this whole mess really pointed out to me the need for informed citizens to sit on these town boards. A majority of the board seats in our town are held by the 65+ crowd just looking for something to do and not always the most well informed.

[aurora]

Aug 3, 2023 16:04:15 GMT -5 nospaekae said:

Aug 2, 2023 14:36:51 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

When I worked for the City, the surveyors were part of my dept. They were constantly coming in all the time with stuff that had originally been surveyed wrong because it was done by the property owner, or someone who apparently didn't think surveying was hard so didn't hire an actual survey company. In most of these instances it was property owners who thought that they owned city right of way. I can think of only one instance where the city was wrong.

ETA: Also, that group was the group that had to have a police presence more often than not when out doing their jobs when it came to working with private citizens. People are wild.

We recently had to attend a zoning meeting regarding a new neighbor in the process of building that wanted to split his lot in order to sell the extra lot as an additional house lot. Come to find out he had not had the potential new lot surveyed. He instead provided the zoning board with a hand-drawn map with "estimated" dimensions of the new lot. And on top of that, he had already filed an (illegal) deed with the town for the new lot. Our (mostly elderly) zoning commission was ready to approve until the building and planning inspector pointed out the lack of survey and deed fuckery. Neighbor's response? He intended to sell so "surveying wasn't his problem." So many are in the building game to make a quick buck and pass the problems along to the next unsuspecting sucker. We were pulled into the mess because the only spot of land in the proposed new lot that perked sits 20' from our well. Luckily, it was shot down. But this whole mess really pointed out to me the need for informed citizens to sit on these town boards. A majority of the board seats in our town are held by the 65+ crowd just looking for something to do and not always the most well informed.

Certainly I agree we need informed people in local government, but it's absolutely not true that corresponds to problem with the 65+ age group. Now that they're retired (and over 65) my parents both do so much for their city in part because they have the time to do the research and talk to people to be informed. I would absolutely not have the time to do what they do and know as much about my city right now due to job demands.

I think this conversation is different from the extremely time-consuming and high stress careers in Congress that we're discussing in the other thread.

[pixy0stix]

Update to the case - www.ctinsider.com/connecticut/article/sky-top-terrace-fairfield-ct-real-estate-scam-19555699.php

Seems like it was settled happily for all parties involved.

I don't know if I'd be able to settle something like this because my feelings about the land being stolen would probably get in the way.

[AAM2012]

Lololololol…


“As for the criminal investigation into the scammer who claimed to be Kenigsberg at a South Africa address, we have seen no resolution. Fairfield Police turned the case over to the FBI, which has not reported a break in the case. “


I also would have sued for over $2m if they built a $1.5m home on my property…but I’m sure the land really didn’t have much sentimental value and/or he got his fair share in the settlement $$$$$.

I hope the buyers got title insurance!

[fryjack2]

Aug 2, 2023 11:52:51 GMT -5 Michelle said:

I must be spending too much time on Native American TikTok. Based on the title, I thought this was going to be a come uppance kind of story. Like, "Hmmm doesn't feel so good when it happens to you, does it?" ::from smiling Native American::

The title of this thread applies to like, 90% of people in the West Bank of Palestine. It’s a daily occurrence.

[4speedy]

Something kinda related happened to the arguably second most famous home in America. An overseas scammer stole Lisa Marie Presley’s identity and took out a loan on Graceland. It went into default and made its way so far into the foreclosure process that bank auction was days away when a judge issued a cease and desist until the identity issue could be figured out. I think it was within the last 6 months or so.

www.cnn.com/2024/05/29/investing/graceland-scam/index.html

[basilosaurus]

Jul 17, 2024 12:57:58 GMT -5 4speedy said:

Something kinda related happened to the arguably second most famous home in America. An overseas scammer stole Lisa Marie Presley’s identity and took out a loan on Graceland. It went into default and made its way so far into the foreclosure process that bank auction was days away when a judge issued a cease and desist until the identity issue could be figured out. I think it was within the last 6 months or so.

www.cnn.com/2024/05/29/investing/graceland-scam/index.html

We had a thread on it. I'm not sure I'd call it the 2nd most famous, but it's definitely up there.

[4speedy]

Jul 17, 2024 13:07:00 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Jul 17, 2024 12:57:58 GMT -5 4speedy said:

Something kinda related happened to the arguably second most famous home in America. An overseas scammer stole Lisa Marie Presley’s identity and took out a loan on Graceland. It went into default and made its way so far into the foreclosure process that bank auction was days away when a judge issued a cease and desist until the identity issue could be figured out. I think it was within the last 6 months or so.

www.cnn.com/2024/05/29/investing/graceland-scam/index.html

We had a thread on it. I'm not sure I'd call it the 2nd most famous, but it's definitely up there.

I bet it’s the second most recognizable name for a house but probably very few people could identify it by sight.