Today’s award goes to a municipal official in Brooksville, Florida.
The scenic city of Brooksville may not have a Brooklyn Bridge to sell. But recently — and accidentally — the city sold its water tower.
Lucky for city fathers, the accidental buyer, Bobby Read, agreed to deed the tower back to Brooksville after the mistake was made. But the error has caused a flurry of social media attention and a rift between residents and political figures.
. . .
City Council member Blake Bell said he was told that during the closing of the sale, which was May 5, Read told city officials he thought the legal description was more extensive than what he was buying. But officials signed over the property anyway, using the legal description they had.
Several days later, when Read went to the Hernando County Property Appraiser’s office to get an address for his new business location, he was told that the parcel he bought included the entire water tower site.
There’s more at the link.
One can’t help wondering whether Mr. Read wasn’t tempted to slap a surcharge on every gallon of water, to recoup his purchase price before transferring the water tower back to the town!
Peter
Or paint his business name on the tower, and as part of the transfer of the tower back to the town, they have to maintain the paint job for 10 years.
How comforting! The citizens can rest comfortably in the knowledge that the idiots running things won't do anything STUPID. Had the purchaser not cared about what the people of that town thought of him, he could have held them up. It didn't have to end well.
As a land surveyor, I write a lot of legal descriptions, based on ground measurements. When lawyers write legal descriptions (without benefit of survey) they are prone to mistakes…that I and other surveyors later have to sort out. It is amazing to me how terribly ignorant and careless people can be, buying and selling properties that are not properly mapped out On The Ground.
The STUPID was STRONG in those ones… (NOTE: not copyrighted; you TOO can use it when you see an opportunity.)
Surprised the whole episode wasn't flushed with puns asking if the officials were or now are under pressure.
Nice to see that some people are decent, and not inclined to take advantage of a situation in their favor that was clearly erroneous. That guy should receive a special honor at the next year's parade/celebration.