Annaleine Reynolds says she was stunned to learn a home was mistakenly built on her property in Hawaii. She was further shocked to learn she was being sued after she refused to swap her land for another parcel.
Annaleine “Anne” Reynolds bought a one-acre parcel of land in Hawaii in 2018 at auction for just over $22,000. The property was supposed to be her legacy to her children.
She planned to build a dream home of sustainable materials, have it fit in with the local flora and fauna of the property and make it overlook the ocean. It could even one day serve as a destination for meditative healing women’s retreats, she tells Inside Edition Digital.
Now, she and her lawyer say, her dream land, located in Hawaiian Paradise Park, a subdivision in the Big Island's Puna district, has become the source of a nightmare, after her property was bulldozed and a home was mistakenly built there.
Reynolds, an energy healer and relationship coach for women who lives in California, says she learned that a home was being erected on her land when she got a call last June from a real estate agent saying that the house was sold.
“It was a total shock,” she says.
At first, she though the call was a prank. “I had so many things going through my mind," she says.
The sale of the house did not, in fact, go through. Soon after, the developer of the home, Keaau Development Partnership, which owns the lot next to Reynolds’ property, apologized for the mistake and asked to rectify the situation out of court, Peter S.R. Olson, attorney for Keaau Development Partnership, tells Inside Edition Digital.
“We tried to work this out beforehand,” he says. The company says it offered a parcel of land of equal size, location and value to Reynolds in exchange for her land, but she rejected that offer.
The home, which is still vacant, is a three-bedroom, two-bath house.
“He wanted to swap lots. And I said, ‘No, I do not want to swap lots,’” she says. “There is a reason behind that. When I was looking for the lot with my kids, we take into consideration like coordinates north, south, east, west, the position of the stars, numerology, our zodiac signs. They need to all align. And then also, we need to get a feel for the land. So we go on the land. You could feel it went from miles away if it feels right. And it did. It checked off all the boxes on my parameters and my requirements. And the neighboring property, it wasn't the same.”
After Reynolds rejected Keaau Development Partnership's offer, the lawsuits began being filed.
Keaau Development Partnership has filed a lawsuit against Reynolds, as well as against PJ's Construction, which Keaau Development Partnership had hired to build the home. The company is also suing the county, which approved the permits for the home to be built.
“My client relied upon PJ's Construction to locate the lot and construct the house. It was fully permitted by the county of Hawaii, and my client was actually trying to sell the house when it was in escrow, and it was discovered that the house was constructed on the wrong lot, on Ms. Reynolds' lot,” Olson says. “So my client, their principals are Hawaii residents. They're trying to build houses on Hawaii Island and they are out of pocket $300,000 for payments for constructing this house.”
Inside Edition Digital has reached out to the Hawaii County Department of Public Works for comment and has not heard back. The attorney representing PJ's construction have not responded to Inside Edition Digital's requests for comment.
An attorney for PJ’s Construction claims it is not at fault and told Hawaii News Now that Keaau Development Partnership didn’t want to hire surveyors. Olson says that is untrue.
“My client had conversations with the contractor at certain times regarding when a surveyor might be used. And during this process, they did in fact use surveyors and they trusted and left it up to PJ's to make the decision on the location of the property. And yes, the mistake was made. This is a terrible mistake,” Olson says. “Everyone has been paid except for my client and that's why we filed this lawsuit. So we want justice. Yeah, it's totally unfortunate. But Ms. Reynolds is a non-resident, she's got no ties to this property. She bought it super cheap at a tax sale. And I don't know what she's complaining about. Her property is appreciated by $450,000. And she's the victim in this?”
Yet, for Reynolds the issues have not stopped. She says squatters had entered the home that was mistakenly built on her property and left feces in parts of the house that she says she had to clean up.
“We found the poop in the toilets and on the floor, and wow, it was so gross. I was like, ‘wow, that's super disgusting,’” she says. “It's like a foreign invasion that I don't even know where this thing came from. It's on my property, and now there's poop on the floor, and this just did not align with me.”
Reynolds has countersued. Her attorney, James DiPasquale, tells Inside Edition Digital, “I've been practicing for 20, 21 years…I haven't had anything remotely close to this. I mean, I've had people encroaching on other people's lands. I've had easement issues. But something like this is just beyond understanding.”
DiPasquale calls the entire ordeal that his client has been through "crazy." “They screwed up so colossally that it wasn't funny," he says.
“It was a very significant mistake suing her. It makes them look horrible," he continues. "But more concerning, in my opinion, is the fact that their claim and their position on this is that the property has been drastically enriched and she's been enriched by the placement of this house. They just assume without further consideration that maybe she doesn't want this house. Maybe she wanted a house of her own design. Maybe she wanted to place it differently. Maybe she wanted to use it differently.”
Reynolds, DiPasquale says, is “a different type of individual."
"She's a holistic individual and she has her own images as to what she finds desirable," he says. "And they think that she is being not only unrealistic, but overly unrealistic by refusing to just accept a swap for an adjacent piece of property. I don't know why anyone would have to give up their land simply because someone else made a mistake on that.”
Olson says that because the home, which is reportedly worth $500,000, according to the Associated Press, is now on the parcel of land, Reynolds has been enriched by the construction.
“We believe that Ms. Reynolds is exploiting PJ Construction's mistake in order to get money out of this," he says. "And it is very sensational. So my client's out $300,000, they're making these claims to recoup their losses and her property has been enriched by almost $450,000 just on paper."
DiPasquale does not agree with Olson's assessment of the situation. "They truly believe that it's as open and shut as, ‘Hey, listen. This is a mistake. It's super easy to rectify. You give us your property, we'll give you ours, and that'll be the end of it.’ But in what world is that equitable?" DiPasquale says. "It seems so outlandish to think that, or to even just presume that that's appropriate. And to then categorize her as selfish and trying to extort them is absolutely unrealistic.”
The situation could take years to resolve.
“Am I prepared for the long journey? Well, whether or not I'm prepared, I need to be, don't I? That's the answer!” she says.
Reynolds says she has been learning much about herself throughout the process she has surprisingly found herself in.
“I've been energy healing, because that's my job, so it's like, OK, I need to take precedence and practice what I preach," she says. "So it's really just let go of all these emotions. And so I worked on myself a lot so that. I can actually speak to you without crying. So levelheaded, and then you can feel that there is an emotional charge, but if you talked to me last year, I'd probably be screaming my head off."
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