A HOMEOWNER claimed his property had been sold behind his back just three days after he bought it.
Jay Brandon, of St. Louis, Missouri, was wide-eyed when he spotted people working on what he thought was his home.
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He paid $15,000 for the property in February 2023 but days later, the ownership had changed hands, according to local Fox affiliate KTVI-TV.
Brandon said the workers had been given instructions by the new owner.
“I was like dang, so I pulled up and I asked them what was going on, and they said they had been hired by the new owner to clean out the house,” he said.
Paperwork, seen by KTVI-TV, revealed the home had been transferred for $2,000.
A quitclaim deed was approved by officials at the St. Louis Recorder of the Deeds.
Brandon said there were inaccuracies in the paperwork.
He said his name was spelled wrong and the name for the witness and the new owner were identical.
“It’s sad that they could have took just an extra step to look into something,” he said.
“They could see the signature is day and night.”
The U.S. Sun has approached the St. Louis Recorder of the Deeds for comment.
‘I haven’t heard a word!’ fume neighbors forced to pay for repairs out of pocket due to HOA’s $5,000 debt_KTUL
Quitclaim deeds see the ownership of a property change quickly.
Experts at Chase Bank say the transfers usually involve people who trust each other.
The deeds are a real estate tool commonly used by family members.
Quitclaim deeds are popular in cases involving marriage, wills, and divorce.
What is a quitclaim deed?
Quitclaim deeds are a useful tool for transferring ownership of property quickly.
Experts at Chase Bank have warned the mechanism is generally used by people who trust each other.
The paperwork is signed by the person transferring the property and the receiving party.
The document is signed by both parties and it is dated to make it official.
There are different scenarios where a quitclaim deed may be appropriate. These include:
- Marriage
- Divorce
- Wills
- Fixing any errors that are on property records
But quitclaim deed forms have been exploited by scammers looking to target unsuspecting homeowners.
Signatures can be forged without the homeowner’s knowledge.
Documents are taken to local offices and filed before they are processed.
But scammers have been exploiting quitclaim deeds to take advantage of homeowners.
Unscrupulous fraudsters can forge signatures without the original homeowner’s knowledge.
The document is taken to a county register and it’s then filed.
County officials process the quitclaim deed, and the home’s ownership is then transferred.
There are different ways homeowners can protect themselves from such fraud.
Checking property records often is a good way to spot if there has been any unfamiliar quitclaim deeds filed.
Homeowners who think they’ve been targeted should call the cops immediately.
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A HOMEOWNER claimed his property had been sold behind his back just three days after buying it.
Jay Brandon, of St. Louis, Missouri, was wide-eyed when he spotted people working on what he thought was his property.
He paid $15,000 for the property in February 2023 but days later, the ownership had changed hands, according to the Fox affiliate KTVI-TV.
Brandon claimed the people working had been given instructions by the new owner.
“I was like dang, so I pulled up and I asked them what was going on, and they said they had been hired by the new owner to clean out the house,” he said.
Paperwork, seen by KTVI-TV, revealed the home had been transferred for $2,000.
It emerged a quitclaim deed was approved by officials at the St. Louis Recorder of the Deeds.
Brandon said there were inaccuracies in the paperwork.
He claimed his name was spelled wrong and the name for the witness and the new owner were identical.
“It’s sad that they could have took [sic] just an extra step to look into something,” he said.
“They could see the signature is day and night.”
The U.S. Sun has approached the St. Louis Recorder of the Deeds for comment.
Quitclaim deeds see the ownership of a property change quickly.
Experts at Chase Bank say the transfers usually involve people who trust each other.
The deeds are a real estate tool commonly used by family members.
Quitclaim deeds are popular in cases involving marriage, wills, and divorce.
What is a quitclaim deed?
Quitclaim deeds are a useful tool when it comes to transferring the ownership of property quickly.
Experts at Chase Bank have warned the mechanism is generally used by people who trust each other.
The paperwork is signed by the person transferring the property and who is receiving it.
The document is signed by both parties and it is dated to make it official.
There are different scenarios where a quitclaim deed may be appropriate. These include:
- Marriage
- Divorce
- Wills
- Fixing any errors that are on property records
But quitclaim deed forms have been exploited by scammers looking to target unsuspecting homeowners.
Signatures can be forged without the homeowner’s knowledge.
Documents are taken to local offices and are filed before they are processed.
But quitclaim deeds have been exploited by scammers who take advantage of homeowners.
Unscrupulous fraudsters can forge signatures without the original homeowner’s knowledge.
The document is taken to a county register and it’s then filed.
County officials process the quitclaim deed, and the home’s ownership is then transferred.
There are different ways homeowners can protect themselves from such fraud.
Checking property records often is a good way to spot if there have been any unfamiliar quitclaim deeds filed.
Homeowners who think they’ve been targeted should call the cops immediately.
A HOMEOWNER has been forced out of his highly invested into home after dealing with a nightmare HOA situation.
John, from Fort Collins, Colorado, had no choice but to sell his property for a fraction of what it was worth to an investor.
John had to sell his home at a low price to avoid it being sold at an HOA-induced foreclosure auction from unpaid payments to the association, Colorado Sun reported in 2023.
He inherited the property which is worth $350,000 from his grandmother who put $250,000 of equity into it.
But the HOA said he owed them around $12,000 which he was unable to pay.
John tried to fight the unpaid bills and foreclosure in court but ended up racking up $17,500 in attorney fees and lost the case.
He was offered $110,000 for the home by an investor after walking out of court and had no choice but to sell to cover all his debt.
John said he would only profit about $20,000 to $30,000 from selling the parking lot of the home.
His Colorado home was located in the area where he grew up which added to his cherishment of the place.
“It’s definitely unfair,” John said.
“Absolutely it’s unfair.
“This is pretty much where I grew up.
“To have to watch it go for not even anything close to what it’s worth — and to have to watch it go period.
“Just sucks.”
LOST EVERYTHING
The HOA foreclosure issue is not uncommon, especially in Colorado where it has reportedly had more than 250 homes sold off at an auction for a fraction of the price due to unpaid fees.
Darin Bigus, 37, owned a home in the heart of Aurora and the value of it skyrocketed while he was living in it plus he remodeled – but after missing HOA payments, the association was able to foreclose.
Bigus is familiar with construction and redid the house’s interior, and added a garden along with a concrete patio with embedded fiber optic lights.
The house was bought for $267,500 in 2015 and was worth around $520,000 in 2022.
He was banking on being able to make a profit on the home as an investment.
However, the HOA sold Bigus’s home for just $76,000 when they foreclosed it.
“I honestly thought someone was messing with me.”
Darin Bigus
The foreclosure occurred because Bigus’s payments got canceled after he got his debit card was stolen and had to get a new card in 2020.
The bill for his HOA payments grew to $8,619 after the HOA payments were stopped and he was not able to pay it.
WHAT IS A FORECLOSURE?
Homeowners or borrowers will receive a Notice of Default by their lender triggering the foreclosure process.
Those in HOA communities can also see their homes foreclosed by their HOA for falling behind on fees meaning that even if you keep up on mortgage payments, you can still lose your home.
Before foreclosure, a HOA will put a lien on your property which then allows them to auction it to reclaim unpaid funds.
The sale price of the property can often be much less than they are worth as it only needs to be enough to cover the debts to the HOA or lender and is sold via auction to the highest bidder.
“I honestly thought someone was messing with me,” Bigus told the Colorado Sun.
“It completely destroyed me financially.
“It destroyed my life.”
An investor bought Bigus’s home at a low price from the foreclosure auction and then resold it for half a million.
Bigus has been left devastated after losing the home that he put so much into.
A DISABLED man was instructed to immediately leave his home after it was sold from under him, allegedly without warning.
Archie Robinson from Memphis, Tennessee is one of numerous homeowners whose homes were sold by Shelby County at auction during the pandemic.
The County foreclosed the properties because the owners were behind on tax bills.
“Some young lady served me some papers stating that someone had bought the home, and why was I here? And who was I?” the 54-year-old told WMC-TV in 2022.
“I was like – I’ve been here basically all my life.”
Robinson inherited his childhood home when his mother, who was behind on her property taxes, died.
However, the property was then sold in a tax sale in February 2021 by the Shelby County Trustee’s Office.
This action is taken so the money owed to the county, in this case, $5,000, can be paid back from the sale.
Robinson was sick and bedridden in 2021 when he received an eviction notice telling him to vacate the property “immediately” and claims he had no idea his home had been sold.
“I asked, ‘How could you sell my property without me knowing?'” Robinson said.
“He said ‘Well, we sent out notices,’ “I said, ‘Well, I haven’t received any notices.'”
Under state laws, homeowners whose properties are set to undergo tax sales must be notified.
Shelby County uses certified mail which must be signed by the homeowner or another authorized individual to prove receipt of the notice.
However, during the pandemic, the U.S. Postal Service allowed carriers to sign the notices instead of the homeowners with the words “COVID” or “C-19.”
Shelby County Trustee Regina Morrison Newman told the news outlet that Robinson signed three certified mail notices, though he denies this.
However, she did not dispute the fact that thousands of homeowners may not have been correctly informed of a tax sale.
“Our return receipts for 30,000 pieces of certified mail came back marked COVID, so we could not prove to the courts that anybody received that mail or that due process was provided,” Newman told the County Commission in October 2020.
Despite this, the Trustee’s Office auctioned off nearly 1,700 homes between August 2020 and February 2021.
During this period there was a ban on federal eviction and mortgage foreclosure.
According to the analysis done by the University of Memphis Institute for Public Service Reporting in a joint investigation with WMC-TV, the majority of these properties were empty but over 400 seemed to be occupied at the time.
When faced with eviction, owners are either forced to move somewhere else quickly or cough up the money to repurchase their homes.
How can your home be sold without your consent?
Your home can be sold from under you for various reasons – here are three key things to look out for:
Tax Sale
- A Tax sale is the sale of property by a governmental entity to recover unpaid taxes by the owner who has reached a certain point of delinquency in their owed payments.
- Before a tax sale takes place, there is a right-of-redemption period where the owner can pay off their debt and reclaim their home.
- Each state has different laws surrounding tax sales but in most areas, the basic requirement is that adequate notice is given to the owner to pay the outstanding money, and any sale must be open to the public.
Foreclosure
- Foreclosures can take place when lenders take control of a property after borrowers have failed to make their repayments.
- Borrowers will receive a Notice of Default, triggering the foreclosure process.
- Homeowners in HOA communities can also see their homes foreclosed by their HOA for falling behind on fees.
- This means that even if you keep up with mortgage repayments, you could still lose your home if your HOA has a lien on your property.
- When such a foreclosure takes place, the sale price only needs to be enough to cover the HOA debt meaning that properties can be sold for much less than they are worth.
Property Fraud
- Criminals can sell or mortgage homes by pretending to be the owner by using a fake or stolen ID.
- Typical targets for property fraud include absent owners like landlords, owners who live abroad, and sole owners of unmortgaged homes.
- The U.S. Sun previously reported on a man whose vacation home worth $300,000 was sold by criminals for just $9,000 – they even had the deed to the property.
Newman defended the actions of the Trustee’s Office by arguing to the news outlet that the addresses of the homes set for tax sale were published in the Memphis Daily News.
It is a state requirement to put the addresses in a newspaper that is in general circulation as well as putting them on the Public Notice Tennessee website.
However, the news outlet was told by several homeowners, including Robinson, that they had never heard of or seen the Memphis Daily News.
A former attorney from Newman’s office spoke to the news outlet about the issue.
Jack Turner explained that homeowners can come forward to claim that they did not receive proper notice of the sale of their homes.
“Somebody may challenge a tax sale after the fact and say they were never given notice and the courts will have to decide whether the notice was sufficient or not,” said Turner.
“If that happens, they’re still going to have back taxes due, but it might set aside a tax sale.”
Turner added that before he left his position at Newman’s office, it was still receiving certified mail that was signed by postal workers, not homeowners, while tax sales continued to go through.
“I can just tell you my experience being there: the goal is to get taxes paid so county services can be provided,” Turner said.
Robinson was forced to borrow money to redeem his property and keep his childhood home.
“I guess I’m one of the fortunate ones if you’d like to look at it like that,” he said.
However, due to this drastic action, he is now behind on his property taxes once again.
Taking legal action to claim that he did not receive proper notice of the tax sale would take even more money from his dwindling funds.
“I can’t imagine not having any place to live or having to depend on someone else for my wellbeing, especially after working so hard and now being disabled,” he said.
The U.S. Sun has contacted the Shelby County Trustee Office for comment.
A TEXAS man claims his homeowners association initially stopped him from selling his house because of the color of his roof.
Mike Luna, of Fort Worth, said his homeowners association refused to give him a certificate to sell his property until he changed the roof – which was gray.
Luna purchased his home in 2016 and had repairs done to the roof the following year due to storm damage.
The roofer, Luna explained to NBC, then noticed additional damage, from hail storms, so along with his wife, the pair selected new shingles. They were in a shade of gray.
A week later he received a violation notice, with Tehama Ridge HOA saying Luna did not get approval for his roof.
They also took issue with the color which Luna found odd, “since other homes in the neighborhood have a very similar colored roof”, he told NBC.
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His roofer, Luna also noted, had a similar colored roof.
The bylaws, Luna said, appeared to be full of contradictions, with one section stating property owners need approval for home alterations, while another stated that it was “encouraged, but not required” for roof materials, like shingles.
The homeowners associations allow weatherwood or an earth tone color, which Luna thought he had.
The color palette typically includes warm and muted shades of brown, green, gray and beige.
Luna flagged this with the homeowners association and appealed its decision, but kept getting denied, meaning he couldn’t get a certificate for resale.
He then got inventive, and sent the homeowners association a list of color options, hoping they would approve one. They did – the one that was already on his roof.
When Luna made them aware of this, he claims they got mad, and told him he still needed to replace the roof.
“It’s taking resources away for my family because we can’t sell our home,” Luna told NBC.
The homeowners association vice president told NBC it believes Luna’s roof is blue, but also took issue with him not seeking approval.
Real estate attorney Robert Abtahi told NBC he believes the homeowners association was overstepping its bounds and added that the rules “they’re trying to enforce go against state law”.
He said it appears the homeowners association is applying its 2005 bylaws to enforce the shingles issue, yet other portions of the rules reflect current state law.
As of 2011, he said, homeowners associations can’t enforce a provision on shingles if they resemble others in the community.
Three months after NBC first told Luna’s story the homeowners association agreed to let him sell his home and he was not fined over the issue, the broadcaster reported in an update.
The family later moved to Waco, Texas.
What to check before buying a HOA home
Not every HOA is the same, so specific research is required
An HOA is a non-profit association that’s set up to help manage and maintain a community.
But, for homebuyers, a property that belongs to an HOA often comes with extra costs, responsibilities and rules concerning upkeep and maintenance of their home and yard.
Not every HOA is the same, so rules and regulations might vary, so buyers need to research their specific association.
Before buying a HOA property, homeowners should do the following:
- Ask to see the governing documents
- Research your monthly fees and what they cover
- Double-check the HOA’s finances
- Get to know the community