It may sound odd that a couple of investors could swoop in and buy a private San Francisco street in an exclusive development for $90,000.

Presidio Terrace, an affluent street in the northwest of the city, is now owned by Tina Lam and Michael Cheng, who snapped up the private road at an auction this week.

Lam and Cheng don’t actually own the houses on the street, just the road and common areas. But the canny pair can now charge the street’s well-heeled residents for access and parking on a piece of prestigious property they assumed they owned.

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The most unusual part is that the City of San Francisco sold the street in an online auction to recoup a paltry $944 unpaid tax bill, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

But – in the US at least – that’s just how it goes in real estate law.