She paid $22,500 for a Hawaii lot; a builder put a $500,000 house on it by mistake, then the developer sued her

Annaleine Reynolds bought an empty acre in Hawaii in 2018. Years later, a developer had built a $500,000 house on it by mistake. She rejected offers to exchange the land or buy the house at a discount. Instead, she became part of a lawsuit over a construction error she didn't make.

A house worth about $500,000 now stands on a plot of land in Hawaii that Annaleine "Anne" Reynolds bought for $22,500. She didn't build it. She learned about it from a phone call.

Reynolds paid for the one-acre lot in 2018 at a county tax auction in Hawaiian Paradise Park, a subdivision on the Big Island. In 2023, a real estate broker rang to say he had sold a house, and that the house was on her property.

The developer behind the project has since sued her, along with the builder, the architect, the previous owner's family and the county. Her lawyer says everyone involved is pointing at someone else.

She bought the land at a tax auction and waited to use itReynolds got the plot at a county tax auction. Counties hold these when an owner stops paying property tax and the property has to be sold to recover the money owed. That's how a full acre came to cost about $22,500.

She didn't move onto the land. During the pandemic she was living in California, waiting for the right time to use it. Her plan was to host meditative healing retreats for women there. She told Hawaii News Now that the place had a sacredness to it, and that the plot she picked had all the right qualities.

In 2023, a real estate broker called her. By her account, he told her he had just sold a house, and that the house stood on her property. "So, we need to resolve this," he said. Her reaction was, "Are you kidding me?"

The house came from a local developer,

Keaau Development Partnership. It had bought several properties in the same subdivision and hired PJ's Construction to build about a dozen homes on them. One of those homes was built on Reynolds's land instead.

The reports don't explain how the mistake happened. They do show how many parties are now involved. The developer sued PJ's Construction, the architect, the family of the previous property owner, and the county, which approved the permits. It also sued Reynolds. She describes the situation as "awful."

Her lawyer, James DiPasquale, says everyone is blaming someone else. "A lot of fingers [are] being pointed between the developer and the contractor and some subs," he told Hawaii News Now.

So this isn't a simple dispute between a landowner and a builder. It's a claim by the developer against everyone who touched the project, and Reynolds is one of the defendants.

She turned down two offers, and the costs kept adding upThe developer proposed two ways to settle it. One was to swap her plot for the neighbouring lot, which court documents describe as equal in size and value. The other was to sell her the property at a discount. Reynolds refused both.

The reports don't say whether her retreat plan played a part in that decision. DiPasquale gave a different reason, one about principle. "It would set a dangerous precedent, if you could go on to someone else's land, build anything you want, and then sue that individual for the value of it," he said.

Meanwhile, the bills have changed. Reynolds is paying property tax on the land, and the amount has gone up because of the house. Local governments generally set property tax by the assessed value of the land and anything built on it, so a finished house adds to that figure.

There was a second problem. Squatters had got into the house. When Reynolds visited, she found that someone had defecated in the hallway and in the bathrooms. "It was so disgusting," she said.

The legal fight has now run for months. Reynolds still owns the plot she bought in 2018, with a $500,000 house on it that someone else built. The reports I had don't mention a ruling or a settlement.