Couple rents foreclosure from fake landlord

WESLEY CHAPEL - When Lisa Paris and her husband wanted to move to Wesley Chapel, they started looking online. and found what seemed like a bargain: a three-bedroom home with a lake view.

They signed a lease and started moving in.

"We have a key, we have a lease, so we figure we're entitled to move in," Paris said.

Not long after they got their belongings in a neighbor called the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

"Somebody is breaking into the homes, changing the locks, and renting them out, so that is a problem," said the homeowners' association president Mark Spector.

Pasco County Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll confirmed that detectives are investigating the possibility that someone did indeed change the locks on the house.

"The house has actually been in foreclosure for some time now," Spector said. "The bank has not taken title to the property. The title is still in the original owners' name, and the original owner moved out some time ago. It's been vacant maybe a couple of years now."

The home is located in the Bridgewater subdivision, which is no stranger to foreclosures or the problems that come with them. Hundreds of homes in the development are vacant and in some stage of foreclosure.

Last year, a new company began placing notices on vacant homes announcing that new occupants would soon take possession of the house before title was transferred.

That company appears not to be behind the situation involving Lisa Paris. She said a home mortgage company gave her instructions to send rent payments to a Tampa address.

It turned out it was just a rented mail box. No one from the mortgage company returned multiple calls. Luckily Paris was able to stop payment on the check, which is little consolation.

"We don't know, where do you go? What do you do?"

In the meantime the Bridgewater Homeowners' Association will try to help.

"We definitely feel bad for them. We're going to see what we can do to help these people out," Spector said.