Woman returns from vacation to find family home mistakenly demolished

[CaptainTruth]

10. Because they wanted to maintain ownership of the property, probably.

I've seen several situations like this, in some cases it's waiting until a son/daughter is old enough to transfer the deed to them, in other cases is can be the house of parents who died without a will & multiple siblings are in a dispute over inheritance of the property, & yes things like that can drag on for 15+ years.

It's especially sad if the property isn't maintained & goes to rot. I know of one in my area that had large tree branches fall on it during a storm & punch holes through the roof. I recently was working next door & walked over & looked through the windows & drywall has fallen off the ceiling & the walls are covered with mold. The owner was holding on to the "house" but at this point it'll have to be torn down, it's more of a liability than an asset. It's waterfront property though, so I'm sure that's why they're hanging on to it. The lot itself, with mature trees in a secluded location, will probably sell for over $2 million, even with a house that needs to be torn down.