Buy My Water

Hey guys, here's an idea. Lets say you have a piece of property that fronts on the water. Problem is, its not big enough to meet the minimum lot size requirements for a buildable lot in the city the property is located in. No problem, just have your surveyor split it into ten pieces showing the lot lines going 300 feet into the water. PRESTO! now instead of one undersized lot, you now have ten full sized lots!
and you can make a killing selling them all individually Right? WRONG. Folks, you cant sell something that you dont own. You cant own a waterway. Its not yours. Its the property of the United States of America(or the individual state you live in). There are some exceptions to this rule. For example, if your rights were granted to you by the king of England back before there was a USA, you might have something. How many people have that kind of grant...really? This poor guy bought all ten of these lots thinking he could flip them to somebody else, and now he has title to something that the previous investor had no right to sell in the first place. And here's the kicker...since the previous investor recorded these "lots" with the county clerk's office, the property appraiser considers them all individual lots, and he pays taxes on every single individual "lot". Now what?? well, as I talk about in my book, there's always civil and (sometimes) criminal remedies in siutations like this. So hopefully he has an extra five figures to blow on legal representation while he pays taxes and debt service on these properties. What's that old saying about water front property in Florida?