There are some problems that can really only happen to the rich, because it takes buckets of money to buy the stuff needed to get into the trouble. Take this, for instance:

In Ocean Hammock, dream house, ocean view, wrong lot

In short: some folks bought a $160,000 lot, then paid builders $680,000 to build them a “dream home” on it. But the builders built the house on the *next* *door* lot. Ooops.

OK, this is clearly a problem, and the builders have themselves a hell of a headache since they followed flawed surveying. While this could in principle happen to low-funds-folks, there are some details which make it really unlikely, even at a far lower dollar value. For instance, if middle class people were involved, the builders might still make the same mistake, but there would be people who’d figure it out pretty quick. Those paying for the house would notice the first time they came by and found the work being done at the wrong site… for most people, lots are pretty small and well-defined, which would make surveying screwups of this magnitude unlikely. And those who owned the wrong property would notice someone building a house on it. But here, the builders finished the house, and the owners didn’t know it was on the wrong spot… for *six* *months.* Why? Because this is a vacation house, and only one of eighteen lots that the homeowners own.

It must be nice to be so rich that you can invest nearly a million bucks in a house and completely blow it off for the better part of a year.

It’s going to be a serious problem for a lot of people, especially the surveyors, when the lawyers inevitably get involve. The builders are trying to get the two lot owners together to reach an agreeable compromise, and are hoping to avoid to avoid lawyers… a triumph of desperate hope over reality. But as someone who can never dream to have a “dream home” like this, especially not as a secondary vacation house for renting out purposes… well, I just can’t empathize.