Dive Brief:
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Builders in Flagler County, FL, just finished constructing a $680,000, three-story beach home in an exclusive gated resort community—on the wrong lot.
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Keystone Homes did not discover an apparent error by a surveyor—who was later let go for an unrelated reason—until its crews had finished building the home on the lot next-door to the one owned by the Missouri couple who hired the company.
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Keystone executives are trying to negotiate a deal between the homeowners and the lot owner, who reportedly paid more than double for the next-door property than the couple paid for theirs.
Dive Insight:
A mix-up like this doesn’t happen very often, but this debacle isn’t unique: In June, Rhode Island’s Supreme Court ruled that a developer who mistakenly built a $2 million oceanfront mansion on land owned by a public park has to move it to the lot next door, which he owns. The gaffe there: also a surveyor’s error.