A 77-year-old man and his wife were forced to move out of their Georgia home after they say a stranger was somehow able to submit a false documentation to county authorities claiming he owned their house.
WSB-TV reported last week that Charles and Charmaine Allman lived in their Stone Mountain home for more than 20 years. They started receiving strange letters stating they took out a second mortgage, which they said they never did.
“We don’t have no more mortgage,” Charmaine Allman said.
The station reports that Charmaine Allman says an unknown man came by stating he purchased their home from a foreclosure. She claims that man filled out fraudulent documents that he submitted online to DeKalb County.
Everything came to a head last week when the county marshals office notified the couple they had to vacate the property because they no longer owned it.
“They made us feel like we were squatters,” Allman said. “Just tossed my stuff out like it was trash.”
Allman said authorities arrested her husband because he refused to leave his home. Jail records obtained by the New York Post show Charles Allman was arrested for criminal trespassing. He has since been released.
“I don’t know how this is possible,” Allman said. “How does this happen, period? It’s very upsetting to see my husband in handcuffs at 77 years old and placed in the car because he didn’t want to leave his home. He has nowhere to go. No family.”
Housing advocates told WSB-TV that this type of theft is easy to commit because courts don’t require people to show identification when modifying paperwork.
“It’s too easy to forge a deed and record it,” real estate attorney Richard Alembik told the outlet. “It’s a big problem nowadays, because of the fact that e-filing, the e-recording of deeds is so easy. It’s very easy to record forged deeds.”
Alembik said notaries don’t often checking ID on these documents to confirm the correct homeowner before the documents get filed.
These kinds of cases, as well as cases involving squatters, are becoming all too common in the United States.
Just last week, New York City homeowner Adele Andaloro was arrested for unlawful eviction after she found squatters occupying her $1.2 million home and changed the locks.
City code cites that squatters are considered tenants after living in a home for 30 days. It’s also against the law for a homeowner to remove tenant possessions, change locks, and shut off the utilities, according to the New York Post.
In Georgia, a bill that would take away squatters’ rights and label squatting a criminal trespass is currently being considered by state legislators. According to Georgia Rep. Devan Seabaugh, the state “has been identified as the No. 1 place for squatting.”
