A Florida retiree with a good heart didn't know what he was in for when he helped his shady landlord with a loan to prevent her property from going into foreclosure.
While attempting to contact the titleholder of a tax foreclosed property, we found a Florida retiree who was associated in the records. We located a contact number for him and called to see if he could help us find the previous owner of the property to notify her of possible monies she was owed from the tax sale.
When we finally got in contact with the retiree, he informed us that he was the former owner's tenant and had been attempting to reach her as well. He had extended her a substantial sum of money under her guise of paying the back property taxes to "save her home." Unfortunately, she disappeared after taking his money. He later learned that the home had already been sold when notices were being placed in the mailbox and on the front door of his rental. He involved the police when he realized he had been defrauded.
Unbeknownst to the retiree, the landlord had a long criminal history and had been locked up in a county jail for the umpteenth time under one of her numerous aliases. He went to court and secured a judgement for the money he was defrauded, hoping he would be made whole again one day. After going to court, consulting with an attorney and working with the police, the tenant was left empty-handed––until we called.
In a twist, we took the retiree tenant on as a client and hired one of our legal collaborators to assist with his case.
Case Highlights & Outcome:
Our legal collaborator represented our client in this case. With a short deadline, he acted quickly and filed a claim before he was barred from recovering our client's judgement from the surplus funds. He then followed up with all documents that the government requested over a period of several months. Ultimately, the claim was approved, and our team was able to recover the full amount of the judgement plus statutory interest.