A California woman bought a vacant lot in Hawaii and discovered that a $500,000 house had been built there without her permission.

• Anne Reynolds purchased vacant land in Hawaii in 2018 at a tax auction.

• A developer in Hawaii accidentally built a house on it instead of the neighboring land.

• She wants the house to be demolished and the flora and fauna restored. Instead, she was prosecuted.

Annaleine “Anne” Reynolds had big plans for a vacant lot she purchased in 2018. Unfortunately, she was beaten to the punch when a developer built a house there.

Reynolds purchased a one-acre plot of land in Hawaiian Paradise Park, a housing development of nearly 15,000 people on the Big Island of Hawaii, for $22,500 at a tax auction. Today, a home — worth just over $500,000, according to Trulia — sits vacant on the land.

“It was so sad — I cried when I saw it,” Reynolds told Business Insider. “It didn’t look like this when I bought it.”

Reynolds, who lives in California, had big visions for the territory and was disturbed when she discovered those plans will have to wait a little longer while everything is sorted out in court.

But she is in court as a defendant.

“I feel like I did something wrong,” she said.

According to documents verified by BI, Reynolds is being sued by the developer, Keaau Development Partnership LLC, on charges of unjust enrichment and constructive reliance.

Today, she is fighting in court not only to retain possession of her land, but also to remove the house on it and restore the flora and fauna.

How an error like this happened

Originally, Reynolds planned to build a home for her two children on the property and also gain space to accommodate women’s retreats.

Reynolds is an energy healer and relationship coach, and for her, the perfect terrain was so much more than the view or the peace she felt from hearing the sound of the waves.

“Basically, it has to align with my zodiac sign,” she said. “Also, the position of the earth in relation to the stars and the north, south, east and west coordinates, the sunrise and sunset – all these things come into consideration.”

Others see these one-acre plots differently.

Dana Kenny, Principal Broker of Savio Realty Ltd., has been selling properties in Hawaii for over 40 years. He told BI that in Paradise Park, unless you’re next to the ocean or the highway, every plot seems indistinguishable.

“There are 8,000 one-acre lots in Paradise Park,” Kenny said. “If I blindfold you and drive you to Paradise Park and put you on a street in front of a parking lot, I will give you $10,000 if you can figure out where you are.”

Maybe that’s how an error like this happened.

Keaau Development Partnership could not be reached for comment. However, according to a court document prepared by the developer’s attorney, Peter Olson, the untouched parcels in Paradise Park are identified by telephone poles. There are two lots between each telephone pole and the wrong choice was chosen.

“The error was accidental and unintentional,” the document states. “It was discovered after construction was completed and during the sales process.”

The document also states that Keaau Development Partnership offered Reynolds a lot swap: she gets the undeveloped land next door, and they keep the one the already-built house sits on.

She said no.

“The land was special to her,” James DiPasquale, Reynolds’ attorney, told BI. “Its location was special to her, and she just wants it back.”

A complete restoration would take a lot of time and money

In a motion for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order filed by DiPasquale, Reynolds requested that the already-built house be demolished and the land restored to its “natural state prior to the unlawful construction.”

That’s easier said than done, according to Kenny.

“So you want me to tear the house down – then I tear the house down,” he explained theoretically. “Then I have to rip up the slab. There’s a water catchment system with a foundation – I have to rip it up. Then I have to dig into the ground and dismantle the septic system and leach field that has been installed.

“I have to remove the ashes that were laid on the ground down to where the land was bulldozed down to the rock at the bottom,” Kenny continued. “Then I have to undo the bulldozer work. Now that’s impossible, but let’s say she says it’s no big deal. She wants me to put the foliage and wildlife back in. Well, that’s a one acre lot It’s 135 feet wide, 325 feet deep.

Kenny estimates a project like this would cost nearly $1 million to complete. The house only cost about $300,000 to build, but as it stands, Reynolds is footing the property tax bill — since she owns it.

Land records show that taxes on the land increased from $299.20 in 2018, the year Reynolds purchased the property, to $2,019.60 in 2023. Taxes on the undeveloped neighboring land were 654 $.50 in 2023.

Reynolds just wants his land back

Even if it’s not intentional, DiPasquale believes this mistake could set a harmful precedent for issues like this in the future.

“Do I think we’re going to have a situation where developers start bullying and seeing random plots of land and saying, ‘Hey, look, I’m going to go ahead and try to develop it?’ “I doubt it will necessarily happen,” he said. “But I think a more common violation would be something like encroachment, or basically claiming that they didn’t know where their boundary lines fell – they built well beyond another property and they’re just saying that it was an accident. “

Reynolds remembers the lush greens, beautiful flowers and proud Ohia Lehua trees that have since been removed from his land. However, she hopes that one day they will return to the way they once were.

“It was like you were walking into a sanctuary – it was really beautiful and I could really feel the land calling to me,” she said. “I know that for Hawaiians, the land is sacred – the land is sacred and it should be revered and respected. We have shown the same reverence and respect for the land.”

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