Rent-To-Own Deal Leaves Tenant As An Unwitting Squatter Out $5K After Doing Business With Home Hijacker Claiming Adverse Possession To Vacant Houses

In West Palm Beach, Florida, The Palm Beach Post reports:

• Carole-Ann Higgs thought she was on a rent-to-own track when she signed up for a 12-month lease with the Wellington-based company Saving Palm Beach Homes Inc. In seven years, she was told, she and her husband would have a chance to buy the little home in Seminole Manor off Lantana Road as long as they took care of the property and agreed to pay $750 a month for the house "as is." It was an attractive offer to the growing family. But it may have made them unwitting squatters.

• Four months after moving in and after they spent $5,000 on relocation and repair costs, they learned Saving Palm Beach Homes Inc. wasn't what they thought. The for-profit company incorporated in February by Wellington resident Mark Guerette didn't own the home, it didn't even manage the home, which has been in foreclosure since April 2008. A final judgment of $259,306 in favor of Chase Home Finance was awarded last month.

• Instead, Guerette has been using a centuries-old law to take possession of foreclosed properties in Palm Beach and Broward counties - a dubious opportunity exacerbated by the real estate crash that flooded communities with vacant homes and often unclear rights of ownership.(1)

For more, see Odd old Fla. law makes makes earnest renters into squatters at risk of losing their homes.

(1) Reportedly, Guerette claimed adverse possession on dozens of homes in Broward County, but has since withdrawn the claims. In April, the Broward County State Attorney's Office charged the 46-year-old with one count of organized scheme to defraud over $20,000 for allegedly renting out six properties that he didn't own, the story states.