Home ownership is a distant goal for many people today. However, one man discovered the hard way that his could potentially be a nightmare.
Dentist Dr Craig Adams of North Carolina, in the United States, claims that a woman he has never seen filed court documents claiming ownership of his home (worth around R69,292,400) and gained the deed to it.
According to an ABC 7 Chicago story, Adams initially discovered that he no longer owned his home after a neighbour phoned him to inquire about its sale and informed him that a woman named Dawn Mangum had demanded gate access passwords.
The deed was apparently received properly by the Register of Deeds and could not be revoked.
“They say there’s absolutely nothing they can do to reverse this. Once it’s filed their only solution is that I have to go hire a private attorney, and the first quote I got was about $8,000 (about R138,517) to file a civil suit against this woman,” he was quoted as saying.
Adams believes Mangum’s goal was to squat inside the residence and utilize the title deed to delay the eviction procedure.
However, she informed ABC 7 Chicago that she only submitted papers for the deed because she thought it had been left behind. The legislation allows anyone to obtain foreclosed properties.
The local Register of Deeds allegedly did not bother to do the most basic verification before issuing a home deed to a foreigner.
