Rental Fraud on Single Mother with 5 Kids

An unfortunate Real Estate rental fraud during these most difficult times, my mom a single mother of five kids, three of which have special needs. They have been renting a house for the past nine years but in November 2021, the landlord advised my mom that they will be selling the house. So the search began having looked for a few weeks that soon turned into months, in a local market that has increased a min of 35% nothing came up within the family budget that they are used to paying. As the time kept passing the current house was sold and pressure increased with a date of sale and a request to evacuate the house by March the 30th 2022. Not finding anything under $3000. per month, my mom turned to Craigslist and found a house around early March 2022 with four bedrooms in the Hialeah area it was perfect and at a price of $2650 per month, it was looking up (so she thought).

 

This is where the nightmare was about to begin. The entity used the actual current owners of the property name and even opened a cell phone account under the name. My mom looked up the property and it was indeed owned by this person so she proceeded and asked for a contract and the terms were discussed where they agreed to a one year term of $2650 per month. The entity asked for four months including two pet deposits which totaled a pain-full amount of $14,700.00 which she scrambled to put together between savings and borrowing from friends and family. After receiving and signing a contract by email, and desperate from the pressure of having to leave her home soon, she wire transferred the money (before doing so she asked to go see the house), with a firm move in date no later than March the 30th but preferably sooner. The man said okay and that he would coordinate with the existing tenants without making the arrangements to go see the home in person. A huge mistake was made and she transferred the money. Despite apprehension, she did it and thought “Wow it was close to the deadline”, but relieved that she found her next home within time. Soon after the run around started, the man said “Well the tenants are being difficult and it can’t be seen this week or any time soon and they may have a problem moving out by the 30th of March, but rest assure I'm working on it.”

 

So as the time approached it was March 26, 2022 she has most of her stuff in a U-Haul truck to honor her end and move out of her home, to move in as she hoped by the 30th just a few days away. These details were told to a family member, a brother in law, on that infamous day of March 26, 2022 where everything was about to unravel. The brother in-law ever so suspicious immediately drove the house in Hialeah, the so-called tenants were actually outside, and own the place. He was asked what his name was and of course it was the name used on the contract which is public record, and the realization of my mom being scammed had become a reality, and now no where to go having to move out of her home with the kids, and dogs. My mom has filed a police report, and is in communication with both banks, and in the interim having to rely on family as she is displaced and short a painful $14,700.00 dollars.

Please help my mom and siblings get a house to call home again!