Stuart and Tonya Junker loved their quiet neighborhood near South Dakota’s Black Hills — until the earth began collapsing around them, leaving them wondering if their home could tumble into a gaping hole.
They blame the state for selling land that became the Hideaway Hills subdivision despite knowing it was perched above an old mine. Since the sinkholes began opening up, they and about 150 of their neighbors sued the state for $45 million to cover the value of their homes and legal costs.
“Let’s just say it’s really changed our lives a lot,” Tonya Junker said. “The worry, the not sleeping, the ‘what if’ something happens. It’s all of it, all of the above.”
In court documents, the state entities being sued said they “would like to express their sincerest sympathies for many of the property owners” and called the sinkhole formation “tragic.”
Still, the state argued that it wasn’t the fault of officials.
“Those truly liable in this case are the developer, the initial realtor, and the numerous homebuilders who knowingly chose to build over an abandoned mine while purposefully hiding its existence from the homebuyers purchasing in Hideaway Hills,” the state said.
considers
The state might not be liable, but it does suggest that that the state could improve the process to make it harder for non-disclosure to occur. Like, okay, maybe you could need, as part of purchasing a house, to drop by the land records site and view what information the state has on the lot as part of the process.
EDIT: I’d also add that I’ve gone and poked at data like that in the past, and was really surprised that nobody has put all that in one spot. Like, there’s a lot of information that you might want to know when purchasing a house, and it’s spread all over all kinds of sites, often government ones. I think that the reason that it hasn’t happened been made more-accessible and been unified is because a lot of real estate websites are really aimed at the seller and the agent listing the property, so they aren’t going to attach any undesirable information to a house. But, to give some examples, what about crime? Flood risk? Fire risk? Mining activity in the area? Noise levels from traffic or aircraft? Seismic activity? Traffic? Air quality? There are websites out there with information about all that, but it’s not in a unified place that a buyer could consult.
city-data.com is maybe one of the better “aggregators” that I’ve seen, but they don’t do data below city level. That’s fine for some stuff, like giving an idea of the climate in a city, but it doesn’t deal with fine-grained stuff.
They may feel unsafe, but whatever houses end up falling into the sinkhole will be a real bargain for the flippers.
How do you know it’ll flip? Could just fall straight into the hole.
It’s all in how you list it. “Unique subterranean living opportunity.”
Would be a great Outback Steakhouse for those who want to be down under but never leave South Dakota.
And after a good rain, the real estate listing can start talking about how it’s newly lakefront property.
When they named it Hideaway Hills, this wasn’t the kind of hiding away they meant.
It was an error at the sign maker. They mean to call it Hideaway Holes.
I remember this episode.
The area near the 2020 collapse has been [vacated and gated off] but people still live in many of the other homes, usually because they can’t afford to leave.
This is horrifying. The government (state or federal) has an ethical obligation to get these people into safe housing immediately.
If it was me living there, the level of stress I would feel knowing that my house and family could be swallowed up at any point would ruin my life. Damn.
I hope that everyone in that community can get out asap and be expediently and fairly compensated.
This is why regulations are a good thing.
I feel like there’s a “yo mama” joke here somewhere.
Article needs more pictures of sinkholes.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-09/what-is-a-sinkhole/8251282 has some
Wow, this is really egregious on the part of the state. This appears to have been a very predictable problem.
