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A MOM who inherited her aunt’s home has been left in shock after learning it was sold for $10 without her consent.
Bershauna Moore was threatened with homelessness after her aunt Mary Ball’s home in Florida was abruptly yanked away.
Moore was given the home in Hillsborough County after her aunt’s death in 2018. As the years passed and the home started to develop some issues, she started looking to sell.
However, when she began the process, she discovered a horrifying piece of paperwork.
According to the deed, the home had been purchased by a company she’s never heard of in 2022.
Terrified by the discovery, Moore wondered whether her aging aunt may have made a mistake in her final years.
“Moments like these make me wonder how this could happen,” Moore told a local NBC affiliate, WFLA.
“My aunt, who had paid off her mortgage with her own hands, would never have signed away her home.
“She was in the early stages of dementia at the time.”
Moore’s aunt worked hard her entire life to pay off the house, relying on public transportation to save money for her mortgage.
To think someone could have manipulated her into handing the property over for next to nothing left Moore furious.
Feeling increasingly at risk of losing everything, Moore began to fear for her future.
She worried that at “any moment,” she and her son could be homeless.
So, she called realtor Latosha Glover, who took a closer look at the documents and quickly realized something was wrong.
The signatures didn’t match, and the deed hadn’t even been filed until nearly five years after Mary Ball’s death.
“The deed was filed in 2022, claiming to transfer the house for just $10,” Glover said, asserting the transaction looked fraudulent.
“They didn’t even record this instrument until almost five years later,” Glover said. “And on 10-6-22, they filed the deed to steal my client’s home. She needs help.”
WFLA News 8 reached out to the company listed on the deed.
How common is eviction in the US?
Millions of households receive an eviction notice each year.
The Eviction Lab at Princeton University estimated that per 100 renting households, about 7.8 evictions were filed each year.
The Eviction Lab tracks filings across 10 states and 36 cities.
In a typical year, landlords file about 3.6 million eviction cases.
Source: The Eviction Lab
But when they visited the address, the people there denied any ownership and refused to provide further information.
“You can sign it and just file it in the court system, and nobody looks and says, ‘Is this right, is this business right, is this name right,’ none of that. Just put it in there. I don’t understand it,” Moore said, still trying to grasp how the deed was filed with so little oversight.
Despite filing a police report, Moore and Glover have yet to find a resolution.
Glover attempted to visit the company to get them to reverse the deed, but they refused to cooperate.
Both Moore and Glover are now calling for reforms to verify property transactions more effectively, especially in cases of disputed ownership.
“I have all the paperwork right here to show you that this is fake,” she said.
“Now I’m stuck because I can’t afford an attorney that I need to go and just ask the judge, ‘Can you please void this because it’s fake.”