Man returns home to land he bought in 1991 to find a $1.5 million house on it
- A man is taking legal action after a $1.5 million house was built on land he owned
- “I own that and I never sold it,” he said
- The half-acre strip was bought in 1991 close to the site of his childhood home
Published on Dec 07, 2023 at 4:23 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Dec 19, 2023 at 2:34 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Adam Gray
Picture this: you buy a plot of land with the hopes of one day building a home – then somebody beats you to it, building a $1.5 million house on the vacant lot.
Feels like the plot of a movie, but this actually happened to Dr Daniel Kenigsberg.
The endocrinologist is taking the owner of the $1.5 million house to court.
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The cuckoo construction dashed his hopes of building a house next door to his childhood home just outside of New Haven, Connecticut.
Dr Kenigsberg bought the half-acre strip of land at 51 Sky Top Terrace in 1991.
It was close to the house where he spent his childhood, which his father bought for just $5,000 in 1953.
That’s mere peanuts compared to the amount Jeff Bezos spent on his neighboring estates.
And the sentimental connection to the parcel of land run deep.
His father also bought the lot in 1953, directly from Eleazar Parmly Jr. – the family that settled the area in 1716.
Dr Kenigsberg raised his family in Long Island, after medical school in New York and a residency in Maryland, per Greenwichtime.
Despite leaving the lot vacant for several decades, Dr Kenigsberg never let go of his dream of one day moving back to the area.
“Certainly if one of my children wanted to live in Fairfield, Connecticut, I’d be very happy about that,” Kenigsberg said.
However, on May 31 of this year, he received a call that would shatter that dream.
A friend informed him that a $1.5 million house had cropped up on the vacant land.
Recalling the conversation, he told CT Insider: “I said: ‘I own that and I never sold it’. I was shocked.”
He visited the site and saw an almost-completed four-bedroom house that was valued at $1.45 million to be precise.
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Back to Connecticut and, according to its listing, the home was under offer in March.
Official records state that the land was sold to 51 Sky Top Partners LLC for $350,000 in October 2022.
However, Kenigsberg claims he knows nothing about the sale.
He is taking legal action and suing the firm on nine counts.
These cover charges of trespass, statutory theft and unfair trade practices, as well as an additional $2 million in damages.
He hopes the lawsuit will void the sale of the land.
He is demanding that the company involved removes “any structures and/or materials from the Property and restore the Property to the condition that it was in prior to Defendants’ trespass upon it”.
“I’m angry that so many people were so negligent that this could have happened. It’s more than obnoxious – it’s offensive and wrong,” Kenigsberg said.
The same publication was informed by Fairfield Police lieutenant, Michael Paris, that a criminal probe is underway.
It hopes to discover who received funds from the sale.
It’s been alleged that the power of attorney was granted by Anthony Monelli of Trumbull, Connecticut.
Reports suggest 51 Sky Top Partners have also claimed to be victims of a scam.
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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.”
