$1.5 million house that man found built on his land without permission has been sold
- Remember the doctor from Connecticut, US, who returned to land he bought in 1991?
- Finding a $1.5 million house built on it without his permission was a blow
- But it seems that the shocking real estate scam has been brought to a swift conclusion
Published on Jul 09, 2024 at 5:16 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Jul 09, 2024 at 9:19 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
Remember the doctor from Connecticut, US, who returned to the land he bought in 1991 to find a $1.5 million house built on it without permission? It seems a resolution has been found after it was sold.
The shocking real estate scam hit headlines globally over the past year.
However, it seems the real estate closing on Tuesday 2 July has also brought the story of the shocking real estate scam has also brought the matter to a close, too.
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The controversial house sale
The sale of the four-bedroom house at 51 Sky Top Terrace in Fairfield, Connecticut, was contested following a fraudulent land sale.
The landowner, Dr. Daniel Kenigsberg of Long Island, had fallen victim to a rising type of scam called seller impersonation fraud.
In other words, it had been sold without his permission.
However, it has eventually been sold to the same New Haven couple who originally agreed to buy it for $1.45 million – a figure just shy of the asking price.
This sale closed just one year after Kenigsberg, who owns the half-acre lot it sits on, filed a lawsuit over it.
How the land was sold without his permission
Kenigsberg returned to Fairfield in the spring of 2023 after a rather confusing phone call from a friend about a new house being constructed on his land.
He found the house built on land his family had owned for more than 70 years – without his permission or having sold it.
71-year-old Kenigsberg grew up in a house next door to the parcel and hoped to pass the land to his children.
Using forged papers, someone imitating Kenigsberg had ‘sold’ the wooded lot to a developer for $350,000.
Kenigsberg then began legal action by suing the Trumbull lawyer who was involved in the land sale, Anthony Monelli.
He also took up a legal battle against the builders, a local partnership.
A federal lawsuit asked for $2 million in damages, asking for the house to be demolished to restore the lot to its original state.
In response, the local building firm, Sky Top Partners, sued Monelli, the lawyer they had used, and the real-estate company and agent that listed the land in 2022.
With Kenigsberg receiving an undisclosed sum, the builders also gained a clean title to the land.
This allowed them to finish the house and sell it – allowing the judge to bring the matter to a more swift conclusion than anyone had anticipated.
And the scammer claiming to be Kenigsberg, seemingly working from South Africa?
Their identity remains a mystery however, the Fairfield Police turned the case over to the FBI.
Kenigsberg and Monelli are working to ensure this doesn’t happen again, speaking publicly on the case.
“If you live in California and you have land in Vermont, you’d better have somebody keeping an eye on it,” Kenigsberg told CTInsider.
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All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
