Couple thought they bought a house, ended up owning a dirt path

When JJ Hollingsworth and Alemayehu Mergia bid for a San Francisco property they thought they were in with a chance of snapping up a bargain.

It was May this year when the married couple partook in the auction for 1926 Kirkham Street.

They had been sent a letter by the office of the SF Treasurer and Tax Collector inviting homeowners to participate in a sealed-in bid auction.

The property was set to go under the hammer and had a reserve of just US$1 ($1.55) after the owner stopped paying their taxes, Realtor.com reported.

As the couple thought they were bidding for the two-apartment rental across the street from their home, they made an offer of $25,000 ($39,000).

The price was staggeringly below the US$1 million ($1.5 million) value of the rental. It had sold for just over $1.5 million almost a year earlier.

When their bid was accepted, the couple were elated. 

“We would always regret it if we didn’t. Wouldn’t you?” Hollingsworth told The San Francisco Standard.

“Wouldn’t you wonder what could have happened.”

Yet, they would soon learn all was not what it seemed. 

The address they had bid for was not a rental property but a 25-metre by 2-metre long unpaved road between the apartments and their home.

The couple only learned of their accidental purchase after reading the letter more closely.

“It was devastating,” Realtor quoted Hollingsworth as saying. 

“It was absolutely devastating. We had already celebrated and told our friends. I went over and said, ‘Hey, I’m your landlord now. We’re not going to kick you out or raise your rent.'”

Specific details on the letter revealed that the parcel of 1926 Kirkham Street was “rendered unusable”, The Standard reported.

“When parcels that are rendered unusable by their size, location or other conditions are subject to sale for nonpayment of taxes, the tax collector may offer these parcels at a minimum bid to owners of contiguous parcels,” the media outlet quoted the letter.

To add to the couple’s woes, their $39,000 offer was well above that of other bidders.

Of the 47 plots on offer, four sold for $1.55 and others ranged between US$10 ($15.50) and US$11,000 ($17,000).

The couple are now in the process of attempting to get their money back.

They acknowledge they should have researched the property before bidding, but believe the city should have better explained the terms of the auction.

“There are always ways that we can improve,” Amanda Kahn Fried of the treasurer and tax collector office told The Standard. 

“But having just reviewed every piece of communication that was sent out, I think we really did our best to make it clear, and it was successful for the vast majority of people who bid on this or didn’t bid on it, frankly.”