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 type of agreement typically allows homeowners to exchange home equity for regular payments to help with retirement income. However, James described how his “sweet grandmother was deceived into it.”
“It’s devastating to consider how they exploited the elderly, taking everything she might have saved for herself and her family,” he expressed 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 reported the issue to the mortgage company, but it proceeded with selling the property when the mortgage debts were left unpaid.
The couple even consulted an expert who verified that the signature on the deed was not consistent with James’ handwriting, yet the deed had been officially notarized by an attorney with witnesses present.
These are people the couple say they do not know and have never met.
According to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office’s investigative summary, which WSB-TV reviewed, the closing attorney who notarized the reportedly forged deed was scheduled to testify at a court hearing, claiming she observed 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 remarked, as the couple plans to file a lawsuit against the mortgage company and the buyer for facilitating the sale and purchase of the property despite the forgery allegations.
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.
