UK2 min(s) read
Man who bought $523k house finds out he also owns school next door worth millions
A man who bought a house worth $523,000 made a shocking discovery - a paperwork mix-up meant he also owned the school next door.
And he hadn't paid a penny extra for it.
We all know that the rigmarole it takes to get through the purchase of a new home, but most of us probably haven't gotten through the process with a second property too.
Now, more than 13 years later after that initial mistake, a legal battle is already brewing.
Mistake only uncovered 10 years after the house was purchased
The story starts in the city of Birmingham in the UK.
A businessman, Sukhjit Bains, purchased a three-bed home for $528,000 (£395,000).
Easy enough, only his solicitor accidentally mixed up his paperwork when submitting it, which also mistakenly included purchasing the school next door.
Not only was this mistake not spotted by the solicitor, it was also rubber-stamped and approved by the council's conveyancer too.
This meant that Bains also got ownership of George Dixon Primary School... and the mistake went unnoticed for a decade, with Bains himself completely unaware of it the whole time.
Technically, this means that for the last 10 years, Bains has had the power to evict the teachers and the pupils at the primary school, sell the property for millions...or even demolish it.
Legal battle over the school now beginning
The mistake only became apparent to Bains when the council approached him and the other two directors of his company, NH Care, to ask for the primary school back.
Bains' purchased house had first been built as a live-in cottage for the school's caretaker, and that was where the confusion over deeds began, since both the house and school share the same land registry number.
The form Bains' solicitor submitted, called a TR1, only transfers all the properties listed under the same number.
Initially, Bains agreed to give the school back to the council, but things have now hit a snag. He's stopped replying to their messages and refused to sign any paperwork sent over to him.
Birmingham City Council have now launched legal action to get ownership of the school back.
They say that all attempts to contacts Bains have failed - and the property he initially bought is now boarded up and seemingly abandoned.
A statement from Birmingham City Council told the Daily Star: "The council is pursuing the appropriate legal process to rectify the position.
"As the matter is currently the subject of ongoing legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment further"
A lesson for everyone to start reading their paperwork a lot more closely, right?