A doctor from Connecticut had owned a plot of land for years, only to discover that a house worth nearly $1.5 million had been built on it. A lawsuit has now been settled (as of 2024) over the fraudulent sale. Dr. Daniel Kenigsberg purchased the half-acre plot at 51 Sky Top Terrace in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1991, with the property situated next to his former home. According to him, he had no intention of selling it.
While this story is from 2023/2024, it has recently become viral on social media again because of the surprising story that left a landowner with a strange dilemma.
The discovery took place in 2023 and came as a shock to Kenigsberg, an endocrinologist who had relocated to Long Island. He was told by a friend that a house had been built on the vacant plot, which he still owned, and when he went to see it, he discovered a four-bedroom house nearly finished where his trees had once been. Since he had previously told the friend that he owned the land and had never sold it, the sale came as a huge surprise.
In 1953, Kenigsberg’s father had purchased the house next door for $5,000, and the family had owned the adjoining piece of land for many decades. Kenigsberg wanted to pass on the property to his children and grandchildren as an unimproved parcel. The records, however, indicate that the property had been sold to the developer 51 Sky Top Partners LLC for $350,000 in October 2022. The entire process was engineered by a person who allegedly impersonated Kenigsberg by using a forged passport from Johannesburg, South Africa.
Kenigsberg took legal action against the developer, who in turn claimed that they had also been misled. As part of the settlement, Kenigsberg obtained some financial compensation and chose not to retain the land following the experience. The property was sold for approximately $1.45 million.
How Someone Sold Land Out From Under Its Owner
Ownership of property is mostly public, and vacant land generally receives little attention. Kevin Kneupper, a consumer protection attorney who explained the scheme online, said it’s easy to discover who owns a piece of land because, in most areas, county records and online databases show the owners’ names. This means that anyone with bad intentions has all the information they need to pretend to be the real owner.
An imposter who pretends to be the owner, usually by using false identification, puts the property on the market and completes the transaction remotely with the help of notaries and agents who never meet the true owner in person. The professionals involved in the transaction, starting with the listing agent and including the title company, will not become aware of the fraud until the real owner is located.
Why Vacant Land Owners Are Especially at Risk
Seller impersonation fraud has become so common that title companies and the FBI have issued warnings concerning it; since no mortgage lender is keeping an eye on the property, no resident is there, and in many cases there are no regular visits from the owner, a fraudulent sale can proceed all the way through to the closing without anyone who actually owns the land realizing it.
To prevent something like this from happening, some measures can be taken. Nowadays, many county recorders provide a free property fraud alert service which informs the owner each time a document is recorded against their property. It is also useful to periodically check the property both in person and in the online records and to ask the local recorder or a title company about the possibility of having it monitored. Generally, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on any property that you don’t visit frequently.