Purchasing a home is a stressful and frequently expensive endeavor. Except for one Nevada homebuyer who received the deal of a lifetime. When she signed up for a single-family home, her purchase included a large number of properties. The house she was considering in Sparks, Nevada, was worth $594,481. Yet, according to records from the Washoe County (Nevada) Assessor and Recorder’s Office, she purchased not just her Sparks property, but also 84 additional house lots and two additional properties in Toll Brothers’ Stonebrook development just off of Reno.
87 Homes for the Price of One
While this may appear to be a good deal, other people had already purchased and developed on some of the sites involved. In any case, the assessor’s office reported the transaction and quickly notified Toll Brothers of the problem. How did this mistake happen? All it needed was a simple copy-paste to send millions of dollars in lots to an unwary customer.
“It appears Westminster Title out of Las Vegas copied and pasted a legal description from another Toll Brothers sale when preparing (the homebuyer’s) deed for recordation,” said Cori Burke, Washoe County’s chief deputy assessor. “Since it was evident that a mistake had been made, our assessment services section immediately contacted Westminster Title to begin working on repairing the chain of title for the 86 properties transferred in error.”
After transactions like this one, the Washoe County Assessor’s Office is in responsibility of updating ownership information. Yet, this update is based on the legal description rather than the parcel number. This means that according to the formal description of the transaction, which was officially recorded on July 25, it covers “lots 1 through 85… and Common Areas A and B.”
Return of Ownership
According to Burke, flagging errors from improper legal descriptions occur “quite frequently,” often as a result of other copy-paste problems. “Because of the amount of lots involved, this case is a little more fascinating.” To correct this, the homebuyer must return the title to the Toll Brothers organization. Toll Brothers can then transfer ownership to any new homebuyers using the standard process.
They wanted to speed up the process because other people had already purchased some of the lots. Nevertheless, that was contingent on the cooperation of the Nevada homebuyer, who now owns 87 residences. “I believe someone might try to make things tough,” Burke speculated. “But, the title firm also has the offer and acceptance for the purchase on file so purpose is very evident. I believe that would be a loser in court and doubt it occurs frequently, if at all.”
Yet, the corporation did not need to be concerned about the homebuyer’s participation. “True and legitimate ownership was returned on August 9, 2022, through a new document recorded by Westminster Title,” Burke said on August 12. “All of the connected parcels’ ownership has been updated by the Assessor’s Office.”
