My boyfriend, who is 68 years old, was in the hospital in 2019 and was visited by an unsolicited real estate agent who convinced to sign a contract to sell while he was under medication in the hospital. When he was released from the hospital he called them and tried to get out of the contract. They did not advertise to sell his home but they did put $100,000 lien against his property. He ended up getting his property taken from him at auction because we couldn't sell it in time before the county took it because of that lien, so he didn't get a dime from his property being sold at auction because of that $100,000 lien and the agent did absolutely nothing, it's not taking somebody's home illegally.
Thinking it over even more, I can't understand why any realtor would have grounds to file a lien against a property, unless, possibly, the seller defaulted on a purchase agreement and the realtor lost a potential commission.
This has become quite a mystery. I hope William returns to help explain the confusing events.
I am scratching my head wondering what the $100,000 lien was all about. The County/City should have it in their records. Did your friend take out a short-term loan offered by this Realtor?
A Listing Agreement to sell a house, said Agreements can be cancelled at any time. To force an owner to keep active the Agreement, the real estate company owner wouldn't want bad press.
Sounds like the Real Estate Agent had what is called a "pocket listing", meaning only he knew about this Listing, thus no ads and I bet wasn't even placed in the area's Multiple Listing Service.... all of that should have been noted in the Listing.
If your friend feels he was scammed by this Realtor, he should contact the local "Board of Realtors" and file a complaint. The complaints are taken very seriously. If it turns out that the "Realtor" wasn't a Realtor at all, then this becomes a police matter.
Another thought, could it be that your friend didn't want anyone to know about a real estate tax lien, thus fabricated a story to make him look like he was a victim. Not saying this actually happened, but just food for thought. Trying to cover all the bases.
Not sure what he can do now but sue the realtor that put a lean on his house. Someone else owns the house now. Then there might be, as Alva said, a Statute of limitations where you can still sue.
He needs a lawyer. We aren't lawyers. Each State has their own laws regarding realtors.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Florida+real+estate+fraud+task+force&source=hp&ei=LcdcYL2uEYHbtAbb9afACw&iflsig=AINFCbYAAAAAYFzVPVq3Mz6zDBI3OAtd-ReZUTqvFijv&oq=Florida+real+estate+fraud+task+force&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBQghEKsCOggIABCxAxCDAToCCAA6CwguELEDEMcBEKMCOgUILhCxAzoFCAAQsQM6CAguELEDEJMCOggIABCxAxDJAzoFCAAQkgM6AgguOgUIABDJAzoGCAAQFhAeOgkIABDJAxAWEB46CAghEBYQHRAeUIIJWPcwYOIyaABwAHgBgAGvAogB-BqSAQgyNy44LjAuMZgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXo&sclient=gws-wiz&ved=0ahUKEwj9-Mrx-svvAhWBLc0KHdv6CbgQ4dUDCAw&uact=5#spf=1616693044461
If the URL won' work, search "Florida real estate fraud task force".
I skimmed through a few of the articles; they're good ones, and should give you some guidance on the actions to be taken now.
This looks like a good site with which to become familiar: it lists the possible variety of criminal actions arising from mortgage fraud (although it's not clear yet what kind of fraud is involved.)
http://myfloridalegal.com/__85256CC5006DFCC3.nsf/0/2E12201E36A4D8CC8525791B006A54EF?Open&complaint
William, if these statutes and issues are too complicated to decipher, you should contact the Florida AG's office, or if there are Senior Centers in your area which host free brief legal advice (this is done here in Michigan), make an appointment and ask for some initial guidelines.
1. Do you have any idea how this agent knew your BF was in a hospital? This is an important consideration, as it seems as though someone else may have been feeding info to the shyster.
2. How long was your BF in the hospital? There usually are time limits to real estate contracts, but this also raises more issues. In addition, (and FreqFlyer could better address this), were there any "jurats" which required your BF to sign, and any countersignatures by the so called seller? If these involved affirmation before a notary, there's another level of potential fraud.
3. Was the "contract" a listing agreement, or an actual Purchase Agreement? If the former there definitely are time limits, and if the latter, I'm wondering who the actual, so-called "purchaser" was. Is this guy one of the "flippers"?
4. I am totally confused how anyone could place a lien of $100K against a property, for what reason, and what other facts are. Something is missing here. Liens can be for unpaid property taxes, what used to be called "mechanics' liens" and perhaps other unpaid obligations. They must comply with state statutory regulations for timely filing, validation of the lien, etc.
Someone can't just lien a property w/o validation. Was there a mortgage on the property?
5. If the county sold the property at auction, there definitely are time limits, and your BF should have been notified in writing of the proposed sale as to the
redemption period, during which he could pay whatever was owing and redeem his ownership.
6. You wrote "we couldn't sell it...". Are you named on the title? Have you contacted the local Recorders' Office (where deeds are documented) to get names of the alleged purchaser, the agent, and more?
7. There are just too many unknowns and variables here to make sense of this. I'm not blaming you, just saying that a lot of facts are missing.
I can think of another scenario though, one that scumbag flippers use. They convince someone to sell property, then sell it to someone unfamiliar with real estate practices, BUT the flippers do NOT use funds to discharge any liens, especially mortgages.
When the mortgage goes into delinquency, the house is foreclosed, and the former property owner has no idea how he's been scammed.
Real estate fraud apparently isn't unique with some of these flipper outfits. I can't recall where I read it, in an AARP article perhaps, but there may be task forces to address these kinds of scams.
First, I would get the data I've addressed, as these are critical for anyone to consider what action might be taken.
Second, when you get that data, you could contact AARP, as I believe it may have its own task force to investigate real estate fraud, but if fraud is in fact involved, this is a criminal matter and you or your BF should file a police report.
It seems there are multiple misdemeanors and/or felonies involved: getting information on your BF in the hospital (WHO??? revealed this info? Were HIPAA violations involved?), tricking someone into signing a contract, multiple issues of the lien and whether it was a legitimate encumbrance against the property, and fraud at different levels.
Alva raised the issue of a statute of limitations running (expiring). Given what could have happened, the possibility of other criminal action, and other unaddressed facts, there could be multiple applicable statutes, each with a different limitation.
Are you sure your boyfriend wasn't a victim of identity theft, which would allow a crook to commit title fraud? Once the crook takes over his identity he takes out a second mortgage and then takes off. They don't care about owning the home, just about draining the cash value out of it.
If his I-signed-paperwork-in-the-hospital story is true and it can be proven that he was under medication (which shouldn't be that hard) and the realtor is a real person who works for a real company, then he may have recourse with an attorney. There's nothing anyone on this forum can do except recommend he see an attorney with whatever evidence he can muster. I'm so sorry for him -- what a gutless thing to do to a vulnerable person. Yikes.
That it occurred in 2019 and his home is now apparently sold at auction it may well be too late and out of statute of limitations.
If you have proof of these allegations you need to take them to a criminal lawyer and see if this is too late to address now; it is unimaginable that it wasn't addressed at the time it occurred.
Are you saying this person showed up at the hospital unsolicitated? Again, that is quite unimaginable to me, and makes no sense to me.
As none of us can know the details of this whole matter it makes it impossible to conjecture. Do seek the advise of a criminal lawyer. That will at least set your mind at ease you have done all you can. I wish you the best.