A HOMEBUYER ended up owning property worth over £40 million due to a paperwork error when registering her house.
The unnamed women bought her dream home for around £489,600 but the blunder meant she was named as the owner of an additional 84 properties and two common areas.
The woman bought the house on the Toll Brothers’ development in Sparks, Nevada but officials in Washoe County noticed something wasn’t quite right when they checked the title deeds registered.
According to Cori Burke, the county’s chief deputy assessor, the mistake appears to have been made by specialist company Westminster Title.
“It appears Westminster Title out of Las Vegas may have copied and pasted a legal description from another Toll Brothers transfer when preparing deed for recordation,” said told the Reno Gazette Journal.
“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 properties transferred in error.”
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The Washoe County Assessor updates information for transactions based on the legal description provided.
In this instance, the description officially recorded on July 25 specifically stated that it encompasses “lots 1 through 85…and Common Areas A and B”.
Burke explained that mistakes in descriptions actually happen “fairly often” largely due to copy-and-paste blunders.
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“This particular case is just a little more interesting because of the number of lots involved,” Burke said.
The process of correcting the mistake is underway and will require the homebuyer to transfer the title back to Toll Brothers.
Once that happens ownership of the individual properties can transfer from Toll Brothers to any new buyers.
How easily that happens depends on how cooperative the newly minted homeowner is prepared to be.
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“I think someone could try to make things difficult," Burke said.
"However, the title company also has the offer and acceptance for the purchase on file so intent is pretty clear. I would think it would be a loser in court and doubt it happens often, if at all.”
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