Latest news with #propertydispute
RNZ News
21 hours ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Tensions rise as man refuses to leave Selwyn council meeting
Peter Schnell presented to the Selwyn District Council's public forum but refused to vacate the seat until he received the answers he wanted from the council. Photo: Supplied A Selwyn District Council meeting ground to a halt when a public speaker refused to leave the table. Peter Schnell fronted the council demanding answers over a pit on his Creyke Road property, near Darfield, in what is a longstanding dispute between his family and the council. At the meeting, Schnell presented in the public forum but refused to leave his seat until he had an answer from the council. Mayor Sam Broughton was forced to adjourn the meeting "due to the atmosphere in the room". Schnell told the meeting there was a legal reserve on his property and claimed someone started an extraction pit in the wrong location 100 years ago. "I was always promised the titles would be moved," he said. Schnell alleged the council has allowed all manner of dumping in the pit over the years, which has left the land unproductive without a $30,000 cleanup. Schnell said the council had offered him a $13,000 compensation package and to "take responsibility for what's been dumped in this pit by the council". He said he has turned down that offer because he has spent $15,000 on lawyers seeking reparations, and has also sent the council "an account for all the material they have extracted and dumped in there". Schnell demanded "a realistic conversation of paying my account". "I want answers. After 50 years, we're starting to get a little frustrated. All you can do is offer me an insult and a compensation package." He threatened to stop paying his rates until he received a realistic answer or the council took him to court. "And I would like an answer today, so I'm going to sit here until I get one, or you can have me forcibly removed by the police." At that point Broughton, who noted that he and chief executive Sharon Mason met with Schnell recently to discuss the matter, said the councillors would not be able to provide that answer at the meeting. "We are not going to get into a backwards and forwards here." Schnell then refused to vacate the chair. Selwyn Mayor Sam Broughton. Photo: RNZ / Niva Chittock Broughton adjourned the meeting as members of the public gallery began to leave the heated confrontation. "This is not the way we conduct business in this chamber," the mayor said. "We are here to listen to you and we have done that sensibly, and we do not feel that is the right way to go." As the councillors, staff, and public cleared the room, Schnell rose from the chair, exclaiming "I think I've made my point" as he walked out. Mason said the council maintained its position that it has no liability, as gravel extraction was originally undertaken over 70 years ago with the consent of Schnell's grandfather. "Council ceased operations prior to 2003, and Schnell has had full control of the site since then. "Council has offered two resolution options, both including $13,000 compensation for historic use and a five-year discounted licence. One option involves Schnell purchasing the reserve land via the Department of Conservation." The offers remain open until September, she said. "Council remains committed to a fair and lawful resolution," Mason said. - LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
New York Times
a day ago
- Business
- New York Times
A New Golf Course and Old Grudges Await Trump in Scotland
Michael Forbes has been at odds with President Trump since the day Mr. Trump turned up with a plan to build a golf resort next to his farm on Scotland's northeast coast. That was nearly 20 years ago, and Mr. Forbes, a retired quarry worker and salmon fisherman, hasn't lost any of his vinegar. 'There's no way I'm ever going to sell,' Mr. Forbes, 73, said this week of his property, which is surrounded by a new golf course that Mr. Trump is expected to dedicate when he visits his two resorts in Scotland this week. 'I keep three Highland cows behind the house,' Mr. Forbes said, chuckling that the bucolic spectacle annoys his neighbor, clashing with his manicured landscape. Such cussedness comes naturally on this wild stretch of the Scottish coast, where the North Sea winds can snap a full-grown spruce tree in two. But it captures a wider refusal among many Scots to make peace with Mr. Trump, even after he regained the White House and deepened his investment in Scotland — a token of his ties to the land where his mother was born. 'Everyone in Scotland hates him,' Mr. Forbes said, a claim that was thrown in doubt a few minutes later by John Duncan, a nearby contractor who clears ditches for Mr. Trump. 'I love the man,' Mr. Duncan said, noting that the president's resort, Trump International Scotland, employs 35 greenskeepers alone. 50 miles North Sea Trump International Scotland Balmedie Aberdeenshire SCOTLAND Atlantic Ocean Glasgow Trump Turnberry northern ireland ENGLAND By The New York Times Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Times
A neighbour is blocking our property sale — what can we do?
We are leaseholders of a downstairs maisonette in a building where we also have a share of the freehold. We are selling the property but the joint freeholder, who owns the flat upstairs, is refusing to co-operate. She is making unreasonable and ever-changing demands, such as demanding payment, access to our garden, cancellation of a previous debt and alterations to the lease. She has refused to sign the TR1 [ownership transfer form] to transfer the freehold share to our buyer, effectively blocking the sale. In the past, she has been abusive towards us and our tenants, resulting in police involvement and an Asbo. She is now refusing to communicate or engage in mediation, leaving us unable to proceed. We are seeking advice on how to resolve this deadlock. What legal options do we have to enable the sale of our property?DP • Read more expert advice on property, interiors and home improvement This is an extremely challenging situation and you have my sympathy. There are no easy or perfect answers but I have set out some possible options for you below: The real challenge for you is that you need simultaneously to resolve two problems: the refusal to sign the TR1 and the difficulty of physically selling the home. Dealing with the (easier) TR1 issue first, it is possible to make a relatively straightforward application to court under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. Section 14 enables the court to make an order for sale of the freehold without the co-freeholder's signature on the TR1. Turning to the issue of actually making the sale, you could issue a claim against your neighbour, seeking an injunction restraining her from causing a nuisance. However, not only would that be expensive and somewhat risky, there is no guarantee it would convince prospective buyers that nuisance issues would not reoccur. And a buyer might be concerned about potential issues when they themselves come to sell the property. One alternative is to sell the property in an auction. Via that method, you could find a buyer who is willing to overlook potential issues, for example an investor who doesn't intend to occupy the property. You may have to sell for less than you would like but at least you would have resolved the problem. One other option — subject to your budget, obviously — would be to offer to buy the neighbour's flat. You would then control the whole property. I realise that your neighbour has proven difficult to negotiate with, but at this point nothing should be off the table. I do hope you manage to find a Cracknell, partner, Russell-Cooke, I've had dark grey limestone paving laid on my new terrace. I left a tree in the middle of the terrace for the birds to enjoy. However, the birds are seriously disrespecting my new paving — even a low-pressure hose used daily doesn't remove their mess completely. I've tried hanging reflective deterrent rods in the tree, and also photos of birds of prey, but these haven't worked. Short of removing the tree, do readers have any tips for cleaning the bird mess effectively without damaging the paving?SB Get a decoy bird (such as a hawk) and mount it on a stake close to the tree in question. Ideally, move the decoy around regularly to stop the birds getting familiar with it, and keep it as high up as possible. Most garden centres sell Evans Sprinkle cheap supermarket biological washing powder on the wet paving. Leave for an hour or so. Brush. Sluice. Works a treat. And no harm to the stone. J Walters Use a diluted solution of Wet & Forget mould remover (£12.50, Simply spray on the paving when dry (and no rain is forecast for a few hours). The solution should keep the paving clean and new-looking for some Hollowday I fold strips of silver foil (into three to make them rigid) and attach them to the branches of my fruit trees. The birds get spooked by the strips flapping in the wind. Much less hassle and far kinder than directing a hose at How can I remove oily head-hair marks from the surface of an aniline leather sofa?Brian Hayward I've bought a new kitchen and have chosen Ikea carcasses and bespoke fronts from a specialist company. The carcasses have been installed but I'll have to wait about three months before the fronts arrive. Do any readers have tips for living with a kitchen without door fronts for this amount of time? Or any affordable temporary solutions?Veronica, Leyton Send tips and questions to homehelp@ Advice given without responsibility
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
LA fire victims' burned-out home 'is STOLEN by squatters who used sneaky DMV trick
A squatter who set up camp on an LA fire victims burned out plot used a sneaky DMV trick to mark their stake on the property, a construction boss has claimed. The vagrant allegedly commandeered a property in Altadena, which was ravaged by the devastating Eaton fire in January this year. Luke Melchior, owner of Melchior Construction company, claims he and his crew were working at a property in the once ultra-ritzy neighborhood when locals pleaded for their help. 'They informed us that some squatters had moved down the street,' Melchior told Daily Mail. 'They were asking us to basically tell the squatters, "hey, we're getting ready to demo this property. You gotta get off of it." But they wouldn't leave.' He says police were called to the property, but couldn't force the trespasser off the land plot because they had 'registered their driver's license to that address'. The owners will now have to seek a formal eviction in court. Daily Mail is working to verify Melchior's claim. The California Department of Motor Vehicles does not require license holders to submit proof of address when updating their ID, an agent confirmed to Daily Mail. Those seeking a compliant or 'REAL ID' are required to provide at least two documents that display the new address such as a lease agreement, utility bill, paystub or banking statement. The construction boss admits the case in Altadena is the first he has seen of squatters pitching camp on properties destroyed by the deadly LA fires, but is still urging all homeowners in the area to take steps to protect themselves and their land. Squatters have allegedly commandeered a property in Altadena, California, which was ravaged by the devastating Eaton fire in January this year. Luke Melchior, owner of Melchior Construction company, has encouraged property owners in the areas ruined by the deadly blazes to take steps to protect their land for trespassers Melchoir has encouraged property owners to post no trespassing signs on the destroyed lots and formally register their address as a no trespassing zone. 'You basically want to establish some type of record that nobody's supposed to go on your property, and that's how you can kind of fend against [squatters] falsifying a lease or some other documentation that shows that that's their residence,' he said. The construction boss admitted that although squatters are not likely to have any legitimate claim stake in the lots long-term, trespassing does cause a series 'hassle'. 'If they falsify a lease or a bill, or any of that - as long as they've done that, then the police don't have any ability to enforce it and get them off of there,' Melchoir claimed. He alleged that owners will have to go through a 'formal eviction process' with the courts to have the removed squatters from the premises, which he warns 'could take a long time'. 'They're probably not going to be able to take over the property permanently, but they can make it a huge hassle, delay building, delay cleanup. There's a whole bunch of issues that come with that,' he added. Daily Mail has approached police and the California Attorney General's Office for more information about the alleged squatting case in Altadena, as well as any other possible instances reported across the state. This is a land plot in Altadena where Melchoir claims a trespasser has pitched camp, leaving neighbors pleading for officials to force them out The devastating Eaton Fire ripped through Altadena, California earlier this year, destroying homes and entire neighborhoods, including this property Aerial view of builders working at a reconstruction site of a house in Altadena last week. The clean-up and rebuilding process following the devastating Eaton Fire is still underway California has notoriously lenient residency laws, with guests being eligible to become tenants after staying at a residence for 14 days in a six month period or seven night consecutively, according to Proper Insurance. However, that does not necessarily mean that an individual has right to commandeer a property from its legal owner. State law requires trespassers seeking to possess ownership of stolen land to meet very specific requirements. California's adverse possession law requires the trespasser to physically occupy the property and use it as if they were the owner - and must have done so without permission from the actual owner, according to lawyers at Martinez Law Center. The trespasser must be 'transparent' in their use of the property, making it visible to both the legal owner and others. They must be the only person using and controlling the property, and continuously occupy the land for a period of at least five years. The law firm notes the squatter's possession of the property 'must be hostile' and 'against the true owner's rights and without their permission'. The trespasser also must pay property taxes on the land during the duration of their statutory occupancy period.
WIRED
3 days ago
- Business
- WIRED
Mark Zuckerberg Is Expanding His Secretive Hawaii Compound. Part of It Sits Atop a Burial Ground
Jul 21, 2025 7:00 AM Meta's CEO has become one of the biggest landowners in Hawaii, growing his property's footprint and erecting new mysterious buildings. Photo-illustration: Jacqui VanLiew; Getty Images As a child, Julian Ako would visit his maternal great-grandfather's home near Pilaa Beach in Kauai, Hawaii, where he and his family would gather edible fungi that grow on kukui trees and collect seaweed and fish from the reef. For about a decade, that land has belonged to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is constructing a massive compound at an estimated cost that exceeds $300 million. WIRED can now reveal that Zuckerberg's property is atop a burial site: Ako's great-grandmother and her brother were buried on the land. After months of discussions with a Zuckerberg representative, Ako was successfully able to gain access to the property and identify and register the graves with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, though he was not able to locate remains of other ancestors, who he believes could be buried on the property. In a report shared with WIRED, the state agency also confirmed 'the probability (based on oral testimony) of additional burial sites.' Visits to Ako's family's graves are coordinated by the team at the Zuckerberg ranch. Ako, who sits on the Oahu Island Burial Council, worries about what might happen if further burial sites are discovered, because of the extreme secrecy surrounding the compound. While NDAs are not unusual on billionaire construction projects, the scale of Zuckerberg's compound has resulted in scores of local workers being forbidden from sharing what they're doing and who they're working for. 'If all of the workers have signed these nondisclosure agreements, then basically they're sworn to silence,' Ako says. 'If they uncover iwi —or bones—it's going to be a challenge for that to ever become public knowledge, because they're putting their jobs in jeopardy.' Asked about these burials, Zuckerberg representative Brandi Hoffine Barr acknowledged that the estate had been made aware of the family burial plot in 2015, which Hoffine Barr says they fenced off and maintained. She adds that their workers are bound by regulations that require reporting of inadvertent discoveries of iwi. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg has quietly expanded his footprint on the island with a massive new land purchase, WIRED can reveal. Earlier this year, Zuckerberg purchased 962 acres of prime ranchland under a Hawaiian-sounding LLC across the road from the existing compound, which one person close to the sale estimated cost more than $65 million. This purchase, previously unreported, will increase his Kauai holdings from about 1,400 to more than 2,300 acres—placing him among the largest landowners in the state. Development inside the ranch continues, as Zuckerberg has spent millions adding several new strange buildings to an already massive far from Ako's fishing spot, Zuckerberg has commissioned another three major buildings on previously purchased land. According to planning documents released to WIRED under a new public records request, they range in size from 7,820 to 11,152 square feet—nearly 10 times larger than the average home in Hawaii—and two are projected to cost between $3.5 and $4 million each. These new buildings differ from the opulent mansions on the other side of the ranch, with few fun amenities and only one dedicated common space, a lanai larger than 1,300 square feet. Two of them seem designed to accommodate as many bedrooms and bathrooms as possible, and feature 16 of each between them, lined up like a motel or boarding house. As always, security is tight — with each new property featuring cameras, keypad locks, and motion detection devices. Hoffine Barr described these new buildings as short-term guest housing for family, friends, and staff. This goes along with previous development across the ranch: two mansions with a total floor area comparable to the size of a football field, a gym, a tennis court, several guest houses, ranch operations buildings, a set of saucer-shaped treehouses, an elaborate water system, and a tunnel that branches off into an underground shelter about the size of an NBA basketball court, outfitted with blast-resistant doors and an escape hatch. Recent documents also show plans for a new water pump building, to go along with two existing pump buildings and an 18-foot-tall water tank. Satellite images of the property also show dozens of buildings that have not yet appeared in public records requests. Based on counting bedrooms in the planning documents we've seen alone, WIRED estimates that, when complete, the property could comfortably house more than 100 people. The Meta CEO's Kauai activities attracted international attention following a December 2023 WIRED investigation, based on planning documents and interviews with workers, that estimated the total cost of his compound development as at least $270 million, detailed strict enforcement of nondisclosure agreements, and described doomsday bunker-ish qualities of the project. According to some prepping companies, the report sparked an increase in bunker sales. Since then, Zuckerberg's presence on the island has only continued to grow. Last January, Zuckerberg announced his intention to raise premier cattle on beer and macadamia nuts on the ranch, but it seems likely that he has bigger plans. For locals, the question remains—what the hell is this guy up to? Zuckerberg first bought into Kauai—the oldest and smallest of the four major Hawaiian islands—in 2014, when he grabbed 700 acres in a quiet oceanside stretch near the small town of Kilauea for roughly $100 million. The purchase was incomplete however, as hundreds of locals maintained kuleana rights to four parcels within Zuckerberg's property. These rights, afforded to descendants of previous landowners, would have allowed them to cross Zuckerberg's land. In 2016, Zuckerberg moved to consolidate his holdings by filing 'quiet title and partition' lawsuits against these kuleana descendants in order to clarify ownership of the land. He later abandoned these suits under public pressure, but the legal process continued under a kuleana descendant Carlos Andrade, whom Zuckerberg supported in an op-ed in the local newspaper. Andrade eventually won sole ownership of the land at auction, during which some believed he was backed financially by Zuckerberg. (In that 2017 op-ed, Zuckerberg wrote that Andrade, who died in 2022, could continue his quiet title action and pass down the kuleana rights because he had 'lived on and cared for these lands for more than forty years.') By spring 2021 his compound had expanded further, with the addition of more than 560 acres of ranchland in total, some of it abutting Larsen's, a nudist beach. Later that year, he added another 110 acres which contain the Kaloko Dam, an infamous earthen dam and reservoir that collapsed in 2006, killing seven people. The 2025 land buy is Zuckerberg's largest thus far in total acreage, situated on the mauka , or inland, side of the road across from his initial purchase. Public records list the Mary Lucas Trust Estate as the seller, descendants of an early British adviser to King Kamehameha I. The trust had leased its lands to sugar plantations before they were restored as pasture land for cattle in the 1970s by cousins and former trustees Jimmy Pflueger and Paul Cassiday. In recent years, the trust has been selling off significant chunks of its lands. Though the total purchase price is not listed, a source close to the sale estimated it was at least $65 million, and property records place the land's market value at around $75 million. Hoffine Barr confirmed that the billionaire had purchased additional ranch land, but did not comment on the size or price. It's unclear what the CEO intends to do with his new acquisition, but the source also described the parcel as 'great cattle grass,' so it seems likely that Zuckerberg's husky, beer-filled cows may soon be roaming its 962 acres. 'Mark and Priscilla continue to make a home for their family and grow their ranching, farming, and conservation efforts at Ko'olau Ranch,' says Hoffine Barr. 'The vast majority of the land is dedicated to agriculture—including cattle ranching, organic ginger, macadamia nut, and turmeric farming, native plant restoration, and endangered species protection. After purchasing the ranch, they canceled the previous owner's plans for 80 luxury homes.' With the new buildings and new land, Zuckerberg's total investment in his compound now exceeds the entirety of the $311 million fiscal year 2024 Kauai operating expenses budget. This dramatic influx of wealth has led to inevitable changes in the community. On one hand, Zuckerberg has given millions to local nonprofits, including recent donations to build a charter school and an affordable housing nonprofit near the compound. His construction projects provide good-paying jobs. But there remains a lot of skepticism toward the recent trend of billionaires buying up Hawaiian lands. As more of the defunct sugarcane plantations that own huge slices of Hawaiian land begin offloading their assets, more new-money billionaires have been buying in. In 2012, then Oracle CEO Larry Ellison bought almost the entirety of the smaller island of Lanai for $300 million, which he has been developing into a luxury resort destination. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former TV presenter and businesswoman Oprah Winfrey both have outposts on Maui. And Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has been secretly buying up large swaths of the Big Island for unclear purposes. Billionaires pay top dollar, driving up property values. Driven partially by an influx of wealthy mainlanders during the Covid-19 pandemic, Hawaii housing prices have skyrocketed, leaving home ownership out of reach for local renters. 'If our island has any hope of remaining Hawaii, this kind of activity has got to stop,' professor of Native Hawaiian studies at the Kauai Community College Puali'i Rossi tells me, when I mention the new Zuckerberg land buy. 'Eventually Hawaii isn't going to look like Hawaii anymore—it's going to be a resort community. Are we really thinking about 100 years from now, what this island is going to look like?' On a damp Sunday afternoon during the February wet season, a few pickup trucks pass through the main gated entrance outside Zuckerberg's compound on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Backhoes and bulldozers rest in the red mud outside the tall stone walls, constructed in 2016 to keep out prying eyes. It's a relatively quiet day, but security is still alert. As I take a picture of the guard shack from the road, a woman's head pops out. 'Hoi, don't do that,' she says. 'They don't like that. They're very private.'
