A Mississippi homeowner is living a squatter nightmare after getting duped out of her deed and kicked out of her own house by a local judge, according to reports.
Marcia Naylor of Olive Branch was struggling with bills after her husband’s death and signed up with a local company to borrow against her home so she could keep up with her spiraling finances — only to have a local judge label her a squatter and boot her from her own house, WREG News reported.
“He [told me] he would borrow money against my house to give me wiggle room,” Naylor told the outlet. “I didn’t sign anything. He asked me to share with him a copy of the deed of trust to my home.”
Marcia Naylor says she was duped into signing over the lease on her house and ended up getting booted as a squatter. WREG
Marcia Naylor wanted to borrow against her house in Olive Branch, Mississippi, to pay off bills following her husband’s death. Instead she inadvertently signed over the deed to a scammer and was kicked out as a squatter. WREGIt proved to be a massive mistake when she was hauled into court.
Naylor fell victim to a scam where homeowners are tricked into signing over their deeds to get quick cash from the property’s value — only to have the scammers file a “quitclaim deed” that transfers ownership to them, the Mississippi Better Business Bureau told WREG.
“[The judge] upholds that document and tells me I have to be out of my home and that I’ve been squatting in my home, I don’t know how long,” she said.
Instead of catching up on her $19,000 debt, Naylor is now renting an apartment with her grandkids.
The nightmare comes as squatters — individuals who break in or take over a property and claim they have a right to live there — make headlines across the US.
In most of New York State they have to stay put for 10 years, but in the five boroughs, lenient tenants rights laws say a squatter only has to live in a home for 30 days to qualify.
Several Empire State lawmakers have pending bills to rectify the problem.
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