Woman accidentally buys entire neighbourhood of 85 homes instead of one due to typo
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A woman accidentally bought an entire neighbourhood of 85 homes instead of one due to a typo in her paperwork.
The Nevada-based homeowner, who remains unnamed, spent $594,481 (£491,047.25) on what she believed to be one home in Sparks, northeast of Reno, Nevada.
However, when she filled out her paperwork with the assessor in Washoe County, she discovered she was now the owner of 84 further properties, as well as two common spaces.
Her new properties were estimated to be worth around $50 million (£40,865,550.00), meaning she got a lot more than what she bargained for.
The documents stated on 25 July that she owns ‘lots one through 85… and Common Areas A and B’ due to an apparent mistake in her papers.
Cori Burke, the chief deputy assessor for Washoe County, believed that the issue lay with Westminster Title, ‘a full-service title company’ situated in Las Vegas.
The shocking mistake meant that the home buyer was given the title deeds for tons of other properties, too, The Reno Gazette-Journal reported.
Burke said: "It appears Westminster Title out of Las Vegas may have copied and pasted a legal description from another Toll Brothers transfer when preparing (the homebuyer's) deed for recordation.
"Because it was pretty clear a mistake was made, our assessment services division reached out to Westminster Title right away so they could begin working on correcting the chain of title for the 86 properties transferred in error."
LADbible has contacted a representative of Westminster Title for a comment.
Daily Mail reported that the developers will receive a transfer of the ownership titles back to them after being reissued with the corrections.
The current homeowner may reject the transfer, however, but there is currently no sign that she has halted the process in transferring the properties.
Burke stated that the mishap is more common than initially thought because of the simplicity of the copy and paste function, adding that the case would be a ‘loser in court’.
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She said: "This particular case is just a little more interesting because of the number of lots involved.
"It is cut-and-dry for us, but we only see the recorded documents, not what the title company goes through to get clear title,” Burke said.
She continued: "I think someone could try to make things difficult. However, the title company also has the offer and acceptance for the purchase on file so the intent is pretty clear."
