A COUPLE is facing a major legal battle after their home was sold from under them for $500k without their permission.

James and Lucretia Klucken from Walton County, Georgia, are now desperately trying to save the property he inherited from his grandmother.

“It’s heart wrenching,” James told local news outlet WSB-TV.

“This is the only place that I’ve ever called home.”

The first warning sign came in the post six years ago in 2019.

They started receiving letters saying there was a $50,000 reverse mortgage debt attached to the house that has been in their family for generations.

This is often an agreement where homeowners exchange equity to get regular payments to supplement retirement income – but James says his “sweet grandmother was tricked into it”.

“It’s heartbreaking to think about how they stole and took advance of the elderly everything she could have left for herself and her family,” he wrote on a fundraising page.

James was power of attorney on the property when his grandmother died but said that something was off about the property documentation.

He eventually found that someone forged his signature on the home’s warranty deed – shifting ownership without his knowledge or consent.

The couple filed a complaint with the local Sheriff’s Office only to be told it was a civil issue.

The Kluckens also say they alerted the mortgage company to the issue but that it went ahead and sold the property anyway when they didn’t repay the mortgage debts.

The couple had even hired an expert who confirmed that the signature on the deed does not match James’ handwriting, but the document had already been notarized by an attorney with witnesses.

These are people the couple say they do not know and have never met.

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office investigative summary seen by WSB-TV, states that the closing attorney who notarized the allegedly forged deed was due to testify at a court hearing that she witnessed James sign the document.

However, she never made a testimony at the hearing, the outlet reported.

“It started as us trying to save our home and it ended in us losing it over forged documents,” said Lucretia.

“All of the forgery and signatures were stamped on September 23, 2017.

“None of this could’ve happened unless someone in authority stamped the paperwork and pushed it through.”

“I just want my home back,” she added, as the couple prepare to sue the mortgage company and buyer for allowing the sale and purchase of the property despite the forgery claim.

As the forged deed claim rumbled on, the home was foreclosed on due to the debts owed on the reverse mortgage.

The couple were eventually evicted and the house sold at auction for $500,000.

Maverick Land Compnay LLC, which bought the home, had allegedly also been informed of the forgery claim beforehand, the couple say.

They further claim that the buyers even offered over $300,000 to settle their civil lawsuit which James refused.

The couple have launched a fundraising page to help raise money for legal costs as they take they vow to keep fighting the sale.

“We want to die in this house. We want to give it to our children. We want to keep it in the family,” Lucretia said.

At the time of writing they have raised $4,545 of the $10,000 goal.