Charles and Charmaine Allman kicked out of their Georgia home after home deed fraud scheme sees couple forced out overnight after their home is sold without their knowledge.
A Georgia wife has described the moment her 77 year old husband was arrested and the couple evicted from their property along with having their belongings thrown in the front yard after their home being stolen from them literally overnight.
Charles and Charmaine Allman — who had resided at their Stone Mountain, Ga. home, some 16 miles from Atlanta, for the last two decades — come Tuesday were told by officials that they no longer owned the house and had to vacate.
Unbeknownst to the couple, their home had been sold without their knowledge, albeit as it would be later revealed, through fraudulent means. In the meantime they had to vacate or face arrest.
‘How is this even possible?’
‘They made us feel like we were squatters,’ Charmaine Allman told WSB-TV. ‘Just tossed my stuff out like it was trash.’
Most of the couple’s belongings were scattered all over the yard.
The outlet reported that an anonymous man allegedly falsified a deed and submitted the documents online with Dekalb County to claim ownership of the Allman’s home.
The couple became suspicious when they received letters in the mail confirming that a second mortgage had been taken out.
‘We don’t have no more mortgage,’ Allman told the outlet.
The new homeowner told the couple he had purchased the home from a foreclosure.
Charles Allman, who refused to leave when asked, was arrested on a Criminal Trespass warrant filed on March 13.
‘I don’t know how this is possible,’ Charmaine Allman said of her husband’s arrest. ‘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.’
Charles Allman was released from jail Thursday evening.
Having your home stolen from you in Georgia is a rising trend
According to real estate attorney Richard Alembik the scam is on the rise across the metro Atlanta area.
‘It’s too easy to forge a deed and record it,’ Alembik told WSB-TV. ‘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 check the identification of the people who submit the documents to verify if they are the rightful homeowners.
‘There’s no People’s Court for challenging a wrongful foreclosure or forged deed,’ he said. ‘That’s the fundamental problem.’
Victims of fraud who have proof to be the rightful homeowners can nevertheless still be ordered by a judge to move out and pay fines, according to the outlet.
