“We bought the wrong house.”
That’s the intro to a Michigan man’s TikTok, which has earned over 194,000 views as of writing. True to his TikTok username @seans.crazy.life, Sean shared a rare conundrum he never thought his family would have to deal with: Becoming accidental squatters.
In his viral clip, Sean shares how he closed on a house in Michigan in cash. During the entire buying process, none of them realized—realtors included—that they were viewing the wrong house.
“Back in July, we bought a house, this house right here,” Sean says while filming inside a garage. He pans his camera to the house next door. “It was listed on Zillow with the wrong address and the wrong city.”
Sean shares how he’s had to forward his mail three times and has been fighting with the title company and assessor for 9 months. The State Tax Commission and the Department of Insurance and Financial Services of Michigan are involved as well.
The TikToker pans the camera again. “We actually own that house a quarter mile away, and we own the 39 acres to the east of us; we own nothing where we’re at,” he continues. “We’re squatters.”
What’s worse, Sean put the utilities in his name and paid $830 to fill the heating oil tank before they moved in.
A letter arrives
On moving day, Sean noticed the mailbox.
“It had a different address than in our closing documents,” he recalls. He called up the title company to update the address, which they did. Much later, a letter arrives in his mailbox.
“Your house is in Bronson, not Sherwood,” the letter from the post office read, urging him to forward his mail. Again.
He went back to the title company, which claimed the post office was mistaken. Sean then goes to the courthouse. There, he learns that he owns the house next door, not the one he’s living in.
“This is so crazy,” he says.
No accountability
According to Sean, no one wants to take responsibility for the mix-up. “Everybody’s afraid they’re going to get sued,” he says.
He calls out Devon title and Coldwater, Michigan for “screwing this up.” Sean also blames the Case Realty group: “You can’t tell me they didn’t know they had the address wrong. Every time somebody came to see it, even when we came to see it, Google Maps took us to the wrong house.”
He says the realtor, whom he names, assured him that “Google’s wrong.”
“Not one person thought to look at the mailbox?” he demands in conclusion.
Viewers share their advice
As Sean shared, he has already contacted the involved parties about the mix-up. However, some viewers had ideas.
“Real estate agent here!” one wrote. “The listing and selling real estate offices should have errors and omissions insurance to cover issues just like this! Lawyer up! This should’ve been caught!”
Another asked, “Isn’t this why we pay for title insurance??” Sean replied that the company denied the claim, “stating it’s not their fault they got wrong information from assessor.”
What went wrong?
Sean clarifies in the comments section that all three houses were in a trust.
“It turns out that years ago, when the trust of property tried to sell this house to the people we bought it from, the assessor messed up the legal description and parcel numbers,” he says. However, he responded that the entire story would take “30 minutes to explain.”
What can Sean do?
It seems Sean is taking the advice of several commenters and lawyering up. “This sucks, I have no choice but to get a lawyer,” he writes.
@seans.crazy.life So we had utilities in our name and filled heating oil tank at wrong house lol. I can’t even believe this is happening lol #michigan #homeowners #screwed #lawsuitincoming #farmlife #marriedlife ♬ original sound – Seans.crazy.life
When something like this happens, one legal remedy is to rescind the contract based on the wrong address due to breach of contract or professional negligence. However, the fact that the sale happened a while ago makes it unclear whether the contract can be rescinded. Still, this may constitute a contractual dispute, and Sean can sue for monetary damages.
The Mary Sue reached out to Devon Title via website contact form and the listing agent via email. We also reached out to Sean via TikTok direct message and comment.
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