Man returns home to land he bought in 1991 to find someone's built a £1.2 million house on it
A home-owner was left stunned after he was informed that a house was being built on the land he'd owned since 1991.
Dr Daniel Kenigsberg's parents purchased a house on Sky Top Terrace, Fairfield, Connecticut, when he was one, and it became his childhood home.
His father bought the property for just $5,000 in 1953 and when Dr Kenigsberg got older, he and his brother decided to also buy the half-acre plot of land next door in 1991.
After his sibling passed away in 2011, Dr Kenigsberg became the sole-owner of the land.
Advert
His plan was to keep the land until he was old enough to pass it down to his family.
However, back in 2023, he received a phone call from a friend that someone was building a house on his land.
First, he was told that his best friend growing up was in a hospice and then that somebody was building a house on the land he owned.
After rushing over to visit his friend, Dr Kenigsberg swung by the site of his childhood home and found himself staring at an almost-constructed four bedroom house.
It turns out that the land had apparently been 'sold' to 51 Sky Top Partners LLC for $350,000 (£275,000) back in October 2022.
According to a lawsuit filed by Dr Kenigsberg, the supposed sale of the land and subsequent construction of a house had been done without his knowledge.
He sued 51 Sky Top Partners LLC on nine counts, and was seeking damages and compensation of up to $2 million (£1.5 million), with the lawsuit ordering the company to clear off his land and restore it to how it was before they thought they bought it.
CT Insider later reported that Gina Leto and Greg Bugaj of 51 Sky Top Partners LLC claimed they had fallen victim to a scam, instead 'buying' the plot of land from someone who had impersonated Dr Kenigsberg.
As for how this could have happened, consumer protection lawyer Kevin Kneupper suggested that someone had forged documents which claimed they had a legal right to sell the land on Dr Kenigsberg's behalf.
He said: "It's really easy to go find who owns land. If you've never done searches on this, in most counties, you can actually just go, it depends on your state.
"But in many places, you just search online, they'll have databases, so they could find out real easily who's the actual owner and then just pretend to be him.
"Now, to be clear, his attorney and Mr. Kenigsberg, they are not accusing the people who bought it of being involved.
"They think that they sort of didn't know what was going on, and that someone in South Africa did this.
"And that's who the police are trying to go after to find where the money actually went to when they paid for it."
Anish Vij