Article
and Video Courtesy of Channel WJXT News4Jax
By Linnsey Gardner
Published September 13, 2016
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A new potential victim has come
forward in the I-TEAM's investigation into home hijacking. A Nassau
County mother fears she and her family will soon be homeless, so the
Florida Attorney General's Office is now looking into her case as well.
Last month, the I-TEAM contacted Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's
staff after James McCollum, a disabled combat veteran in Duval County,
was served with papers saying he, his wife and children were being
kicked out of their rental home -- a home they didn't know was actually
in foreclosure.
The I-TEAM discovered the company taking their monthly rent payments and
keeping that money for profit is Tampa-based HOA Problem Solutions, and
it has at least 25 properties in Duval, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns
counties.
Here's how it appears to work and what Bondi's office is investigating:
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HOA Problem Solutions acquires a quit-claim deed
title to a home from an underwater owner. According to its own
promotional flyer obtained by the I-TEAM, it offers the underwater
homeowner cash for it.
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The company says it will pay off those delinquent
homeowners' association fees, but the I-TEAM has learned that may
not actually happen.
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The owner vacates the home -- believing they are
in the clear -- and HOA Problem Solutions puts a tenant in.
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The tenant has a lease with a separate rental
company that the I-TEAM has found has ties to HOA Problem Solutions.
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In the meantime, the mortgage is not being paid
to the bank.
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Once the bank puts the home into foreclosure, the
tenant could be forced to leave.
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The rental companies with ties to HOA Problem
Solutions keep the monthly rent money collected, instead of paying
the mortgage.
Lisa Smith-Morley
is a tenant in one of those properties in Nassau County.
She learned after she saw McCollum's story -- which
aired Aug. 22 -- that the home she rents is also in
foreclosure. She contacted the I-TEAM because she said
she feels helpless.
"My daughter is blind and my son has Asperger's," she
told the I-TEAM.
Since the home she lives in with her children is in
foreclosure, the bank could force her out at any time,
just like the McCollum family.
Morley showed the I-TEAM her lease, which is $1,900 a
month and current through next year. It's through the
rental company Value Vesting. Following the I-TEAM's
original story, Morley went online and found Value
Vesting is owned by the same men that operate HOA
Problem Solutions -- Jimmy and Michael Chancey. |
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"I was pretty floored," said Morley.
The I-TEAM discovered the bank account Morley wires her $1,900 monthly
rent payment to is in the name of a third company -- RHMG -- also owned
by the Chanceys.
As the I-TEAM reported last month, RHMG is the same rental company the
McCollums were paying rent to.
Morley said that she
thinks her rent money should go to the bank that is
foreclosing on the property.
Morley took the I-TEAM's advice and called the Florida
Attorney General's Office immediately. Two days after making
that call, she received an envelope and a formal letter from
the office.
"It's addressed to me regarding HOA Problem Solutions,"
Morley said.
Morley said she got the sense from the prompt response that
the AG's office is taking the claims very seriously.
"But because it's an ongoing investigation, he was very
tight lipped," she said. |
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For now, Morley is already packing
and storing items in her dining room, just so she's ready for the
unknown. She is trying to find extra money just in case she has to put
down a deposit on a new place, because she has no idea when the
foreclosure will become official and the bank will force them out.
Meanwhile, she's still having to pay that $1,900 monthly rent payment
that's going right to the Chanceys' company.
"They're the ones that have to live with themselves and in the end,
Karma can be a real butt burner, and they'll get theirs eventually. No
one gets away with this," Morley told the I-TEAM.
Morley was able to track that the home's original owner was a man, who
is serving time in the Nassau County Jail. Property records the I-TEAM
obtained appear to show the owner's wife quit deeded the home over to
HOA Problem Solutions -- the same method used by HOA Problem Solutions
to acquire the house the McCollums rent.
The I-TEAM has spoken with the Chanceys, who say they run a rental
property business and deny any wrongdoing. They said they understood the
law to allow tenants to stay in the home past a foreclosure for the
length of the lease, but Bondi's office disagreed.
The Attorney General's Office told the I-TEAM that it was unaware of the
real estate scheme in Northeast Florida until we reported it. Now, the
Morley family and the McCollum family are a part of their ongoing
investigation into HOA Problem Solutions and the companies owned by the
Chanceys.
An anonymous good Samaritan -- who is also a military veteran -- has
come forward and is helping the McCollum family with expenses to find
and move into a new home.
If you are living or have lived in a home that you feel is connected to
HOA Problem Solutions, RHMG, Value Vesting or any other company
associated with the Chanceys, the Florida Attorney General's Office
would like to hear from you. You can contact them at 1-866-9NO-SCAM or
online at
MyFloridaLegal.com. |