‘Never signed anything!’ cries disabled man whose home was given to someone else while in hospital – state couldn’t help

A HOMEOWNER has been issued an eviction from his own home by a company claiming he is squatting on their property.

Gary Chestnut from Seminole County, Florida , has been fighting alleged attempts by a non-profit organization, and its owner to force him out of his home since last year.

WFTV

WFTV

He spoke out to ABC News affiliate WFTV 9 in November after an alleged forged signature sparked an ownership battle for the home that has been in Chestnut’s family for generations.

The local Sheriff’s Office started investigating the case last year when the disabled homeowner claimed that the signature on a Gift Deed that signed over ownership of his home to a non-profit had been forged.

“I never signed anything. My signature is not on anything,” the homeowner exclaimed at the time.

“Somebody’s signature, but it’s not mine.”

Cops have reportedly agreed that the signature on the deed does not match Chestnut’s signature on his other personal documents.

The non-profit organization called The Home Fund is owned by Karen Bobb who notarized the Gift Deed, according to the news outlet, which means it should never have made it to filing.

In addition to this, the witness who signed the document shares the same name as a director of The Home Fund.

Chestnut claimed that Bobb duped him by approaching him and offering help to restore his home to its former glory which he had been unable to do due to finances.

“I thought it was a gift from God,” he said before adding, “It turned out to be a boondoggle. It’s not a gift from God. More like a gift from the devil.”

After discussing the non-profit with Bobb, Chestnut learned that she wanted to develop a multi-family housing development on his property, which he rejected.

A Sheriff’s Office incident report has estimated the value of the property at around a quarter of a million dollars, despite its dilapidated state.

When he discovered the alleged illegal transference of ownership, Chestnut said he was left “mortified” and asking, “What the heck is going on?”

Despite support from real estate agent Sharisse Watson who vowed last year, “We’re going to get his land back, it’s a matter of time and it takes work and effort, but we’re going to win,” things went from bad to worse.

Recently, while he was in the hospital, Chestnut was served with an unlawful detainer lawsuit by the nonprofit which is used to evict squatters, an update from WFTA 9 revealed.

Attorneys from the Seminole County Bar Association and Legal Aid Society have since stepped in to help the homeowner.

“I have never seen something this egregious,” attorney Matt Gripp told the outlet.

What is deed fraud?

DEED fraud is a general term used to categorize any for of fraud used to commandeer someone's home illicitly through seemingly legal methods

Some forms of this fraud are committed in typical grifter fashion, through smooth-talking scammers targeting down-on-their-luck targets, sometimes promising loan forgiveness or mortgage refinancing.

Other times, as with many quit claim deed fraud schemes, the scammers forge the paperwork to show they own a person’s home without the true owner ever knowing.

David Fleck, a South Carolinian real estate lawyer said that technological advancements have allowed more sophisticated fraudsters to make quit deed scams commonplace.

“Twenty-five years ago, it wasn’t easy to forge documents. Now, literally, every computer has the technology to create a believable forgery, and you can buy a fake notary stamp online,” he told Realtor.com.

“So the technology has very quickly gotten ahead of the systems we have in place to prevent this,” warns Fleck.

In any form of deed fraud, the victim seldom knows about the scam until long down the line when they try to apply for a loan or need paperwork on the home and it turns out they no longer are the owners.

Then, the only way back to homeownership is a potentially emotionally draining and lengthy legal battle.

While the unlawful detainer was dropped just days after Gripp and his team made moves to fight it, the overall issue is far from over as current laws make it tricky to prove such fraud.

“The journey, unfortunately, is going to be more fraught, because he’s going to have to prove that these documents are forged and fraud, which is not easy to do in court,” Gripp noted.

Meanwhile, as the case continues to be investigated by The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, the attorney of The Home Fund has stepped back.

The decision came after Gripp and his team fought the detainer lawsuit.

“Once I saw the allegations contained in Mr. Chestnut’s answer, it was clear that we could not proceed with this case. I no longer represent The Home Fund,” the attorney told the news outlet via email.

Bobb and The Home Fund have not responded to the outlet’s attempts to get in touch.

The U.S. Sun has reached out to the organization for comment.