Article Courtesy of The Tampa
Bay Times
By Susan Taylor Martin
Published
July 6, 2016
Several times this year, a woman with the intriguing
name of Sadie Daiquiri has been the winning bidder at Tampa Bay
foreclosure auctions.
Daiquiri has an intriguing address, too — 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in
New York City. That's a 49-story tower near the United Nations
headquarters that houses the permanent missions of France, Italy and
several other countries.
But it turns out
that there is no Sadie Daiquiri in Manhattan, or
anywhere else. So it wasn't totally surprising that she
defaulted on the bids, failed to pay up and forced the
auctions to be rescheduled.
Daiquiri is one of three phony bidders whose names have
repeatedly popped up at bay area foreclosure auctions —
all involving houses linked to a Tampa company called
HOA Problem Solutions. By walking away from their bids,
they've enabled HOA Problem Solutions to continue to
collect thousands of dollars in rent from houses facing
foreclosure even while the company is under
investigation by Attorney General Pam Bondi's office.
"I'm not sure what is taking the AG's office so long,
but they seem to be moving at an extremely slow pace,''
Clearwater lawyer Brandon Mullis said. He represents
several homeowner associations that have tangled with
HOA Problem Solutions over rents, association dues and
other issues.
In early March, Bondi's office subpoenaed a wide range
of company records but little has happened since then. |
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Sadie Daiquiri won a foreclosure auction for this
home in Riverview in April but then failed to pay. The owner had
deeded the house to HOA Problem Solutions, which is under
investigation by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office.
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"Our office is aware of ongoing complaints, and they are being actively
investigated while we respond to a petition the company has filed
challenging our investigative subpoena,'' Kyle Mason, Bondi's press
secretary, said.
HOA Problem Solutions, which still has an active website, is run by
Jimmy Chancey and his uncle Michael Chancey. They did not return calls
for comment.
Over the past three years, HOA Problem Solutions has gained control of
dozens of Tampa Bay houses that face foreclosure because the owners are
delinquent on their homeowner association fees. Associations depend on
the fees to maintain and upgrade pools, walkways and other common areas.
When the owners don't pay, the association can foreclose through a
process that allows it to recoup the amount of the delinquent fees.
Typically, HOA Problem Solutions pays the homeowner anywhere from a few
hundred to a few thousand dollars to deed over the property. Then the
company can rent the house back to the owner or find another tenant
until the house is set for sale at a foreclosure auction.
If the winning bidder doesn't pay up, the sale has to be rescheduled.
The association can't recoup the delinquent fees but HOA Problem
Solutions can continue collecting rent.
Bidding under fake names is relatively easy today because all four bay
area counties — Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando — have moved
to online auctions that work like this: A bidder creates an account with
a username and password and makes a deposit equal to 5 percent of the
anticipated bid amount, payable by electronic check, wire transfer,
cashier's check or cash.
Winning bidders must pay the balance by 4 p.m. the day of the sale. If
they don't pay up, they forfeit the deposit.
"Sadie Daiquiri" first surfaced this year in the online auction for a
home in Wesley Chapel. The owner, who owed $7,808 in delinquent
association dues, had deeded her house to HOA Problem Solutions.
On March 7, Daiquiri won with a bid of $7,900 — enough to cover the dues
— but failed to pay the balance. Daiquiri forfeited the $395 deposit but
HOA Probem Solutions still came out ahead because it was collecting
three times as much in rent every month.
Another foreclosure auction was set for May 11. Daiquiri again was the
winning bidder and again walked away. The auction is now set for July
12.
After the May auction, Mullis, representing the homeowner association,
wrote to attorney Matthew Wolf, who represents HOA Problem Solutions.
"I'm hoping you can shed some light on this buyer as they continue to
bid on our foreclosure sales … yet they never return with the remaining
funds, thus resulting in an invalid sale,'' Mulls wrote. "This is the
on-going and continued behavior that seems suspect at best. … The only
issues we are having with any of our cases always seem to involved your
client.''
In Hillsborough County, meanwhile, Daiquiri failed to pay on winning
bids in two foreclosure auctions on April 8 — one for a four-bedroom
house in Riverview, the other for a five-bedroom house in Tampa. The
owners of both houses had signed quit-claim deeds giving control to HOA
Problem Solutions.
Sadie Daiquiri isn't the only nonexistent person bidding on houses
connected to the Tampa company.
In January, and again in June, "Tori Bleigh'' of Orlando defaulted on
winning bids for a house in Tampa. There is no Tori Bleigh in Orlando or
anywhere else in the United States, according to an extensive search of
public records.
And ''Jeff Stamkos'' of Winners Street in Milwaukee bid on houses in
Hillsborough and Pasco, then walked away without paying. There is no
Winners Street in Milwaukee or any Jeff Stamkos; however, Tampa Bay
Lightning hockey player Steve Stamkos was very much in the news when
Jeff Stamkos was bidding.
Several years ago, HOA Problem Solution's Michael Chancey was among the
first to realize that there was big money to be made in homeowner
association foreclosure auctions. Often by bidding just high enough to
cover the delinquent dues, a winning bidder could get temporary title to
a house and rent it out before the bank foreclosed.
But as association auctions became more competitive and the bidding went
higher, records show that HOA Problem Solutions began dealing directly
with the delinquent homeowners. There was little incentive to bid, say,
$10,000 for a house when the company could get a quit-claim deed by
paying the homeowner $5,000 or less.
In deeding their homes to HOA Problem Solutions, however, some owners
later said they didn't realize they also were signing over their rights
to any "surplus'' — the difference between the winning bid amount and
the amount they owe the association. In one case, the surplus was
$60,000 — money that HOA Problem Solutions claims it is entitled to.
Three months after the Attorney General's office subpoenaed its lease
agreements, HOA Problem Solutions also continues to sign up new tenants.
Last week, a man in North Florida told the Times he had paid a security
deposit on a house the company was renting out for $1,200 a month.
On May 31, the new tenant in a Pasco County house agreed to pay HOA
Problem Solutions a total of $3,500 for one month's rent and a security
deposit, according to the lease agreement she later turned over to
Mullis. That house had been set for auction March 1 but the sale was
postponed after the phantom "Jeff Stamkos'' defaulted on his winning
bid.
Mullis sent the tenant a notice saying she should pay the association
directly in the future. Florida law allows homeowner associations to
"intercept'' rent from tenants and apply it to the amount of delinquent
dues owed on the property.
"This at least helps us minimize damages until we are able to secure a
new foreclosure sale day and also allows us to keep the money out of the
pockets of unscrupulous investors,'' Mullis said.
Every time a foreclosure sale is delayed because a bidder like "Jeff
Stamkos'' or "Sadie Daiquiri'' defaults, it can take 30 to 45 days to
reschedule the auction. That means several more weeks that association
fees might go uncollected and HOA Problem Solutions can keep collecting
rent.
As for Sadie, whoever bid under that name either had some fun with — or
couldn't remember — her address. Sometimes, it was listed as 1 Dag
Hammarskjold Plaza. Other times it was 1 Dag Hammarschmidt Plaza.
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