Man Purchases Villa, Ends up with One Food Wide Strip

| June 16, 2019

Kerville Holness thought he was getting a villa, the red arrow points to what he actually purchased.  (Google Earth)

A man thought he purchased a villa for a bargain, for under $10,000. He couldn’t resist the offer, better snag it up before somebody else does. Who knows when an opportunity like this would show up again.

He sees the picture, sees the villa, then makes his purchase. But, after the money is spent, and after he felt confident that he was a homeowner, the anticlimax hits. He realizes that he just purchased a $50 strip of land that’s 1′ x 100′ long.

To add damage to injury, the strip ran underneath the villas, one of which he thought was his.

From Fox News:

A man who snagged a $177,000 villa for $9,100 now believes he was scammed by the Florida county that put the property up for auction for unpaid property taxes.

The villa turns out to be a 1-foot-by-100-foot strip of land that separates two villas in Tamarac and is worth $50, the Sun Sentinel reports.

Broward County sold the parcel to Kerville Holness at an online auction of tax delinquent properties in March.

The land, which holds two mailboxes, starts at the curb, goes under a wall separating the garages of two adjoining villas and then extends out to the back, the paper reported.

The county received its money, the villa remains with their owners, and the man who thought he had a deal was left with property valued at $50.

You can read more here.

Category: "Teh Stoopid"

26 Comments
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assemblerhead

Old saying:
If something seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t.

Should checked the deeds and surveys first.

desert

Hey the strip holds 2 mailboxes! He can charge the crap out of people to cross his property to get their mail! lol ;0

Hack Stone

Just enough space for a mailbox? Sounds like a great place to set up the corporate world headquarters of a proud but humble woman owned company that sells software to the Federal Government.

MSG Eric

Especially when it’s the government…

Ex-PH2

A driveby looksee wouldn’t have hurt this guy.

AW1Ed

Caveat emptor.

David

You would think he could just take out the stuff built on ‘his’ property, but I believe adverse possession would apply if the houses had been there over a certain amount of time. Not sure that would stop me from trying… his problem is that it’s little money – too little to pay a lawyer to fix and too big a loss for the average Joe just to suck up. About all he can try to do is show some verification that it was advertised with the house and try and sue the county for fraud – absent that, show up with a really big chainsaw and see what negotiation he could accomplish with the neighbors.

gitarcarver

According to the Sentinel article linked in the Fox article:

But the appraiser’s site and information on the county’s tax site also show the negligible value of the property, that there is no building value, that the land takes up only 100 square feet and that the property is one-foot wide.

The Other Whitey

Broward County, Florida? That place really is a cesspool of fuckery

Mason

At least now he can vote, thirty or forty times, because he’s a “resident, property owner” in the county!

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

I’m just North of Broward in Palm Beach County TOW.

26Limabeans

Get off my lawn

5th/77th FA

As I was reading this article, somehow I knew you would be the FIRST to say that. Thanks for not disappointing me.

Hey Kerville, need a deal on a nice bridge?

Harry

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

AnotherPat

From the Sun Sentinal Article:

BUYER BEWARE:

“Bottom line: Taking part in the county tax deed auctions is a risky venture.”

“The county put a new warning Thursday on top of the online auction site, telling investors to “do your research” and that “Tax Deed sales are not for the uninformed.” The county doesn’t guarantee any of the properties, which are sold as-is.”

“While the notice is new, tax officials say the same information was already in six other places on the site in instructions to potential bidders.”

“Holness was one of four bidders on the Tamarac parcel. He beat out Antoine Rutherford of Miramar by $100.”

“But Rutherford, another first-time bidder who also thought he was bidding on a villa, also ended up buying something he didn’t want.”

“In the March auction, he paid $6,100 for a vacant Lauderhill parcel that he saw as having development potential. But the land he bought was for one of 30 condo units that used to be on the property.”

“Rutherford said the building was demolished after a fire nine years ago. If the association ever sells the property, he could see some return, but he has no control over that.”

“Will he be bidding again in the future?”

“No, that’s it,” Rutherford said. “If I do do it, I’ll have to go to the place and analyze it myself.”

“Singer said that’s a good idea.”

“Any kind of clerk’s auction is buyer beware to the max,” he said.”

FatCircles0311

Pure fraud. It’s the government though so expect no punishment. Welcome to assholes abusing their power while getting away with it.

The Stranger

Florida Man strikes again!

Inbred Redneck

He shoulda got hisself a lawer, like the one who’s an expert on things like fuel gauges.

The Stranger

Well, he’s in the right state!

Reverend Pointyhead

My lawyer wears a cowboy hat and gets hired by people that wreck their motorcycles.

10thMountainMan

Marv Heemeyer has the answer.

26Limabeans

A crude Molotov would have stopped him.

nbcguy54ACTUAL

I think I’d turn that strip of land into a pistol range.

Grunt

Too bad, so sad. Dude should have read the fucking fine print.

At what point in today’s society did it become okay to whine and cry for sympathy over one’s own fuckups?

Anonymous

Broward County… home of sleazy Democrat polticos, figures.

HMC Ret

Dude be dumb. Maybe turn it into a one-lane bowling alley.