A Philadelphia resident is reeling after a man falsely declared the owner of a house dead, made himself sole heir and stole the home for himself.
Tonya Bell, 61, has retired from working with significant Philly civil rights figures. She now cares for her 87-year-old mother. In 2002, the two planned to move out of their old home, which was bought in 1993, at a value of $27,000 into one nearby in the Germantown section of the city.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, she only had to pay one dollar for the home, but she had to agree to pay for the owner's taxes. To get the new home in working order and accommodate her mother, Bell spent an estimated $4,000 for the basement and other areas.
But as the bills continued to pile up, they didn't move into the home. The house stayed vacant for several years. In 2015, she drove by the home and found that someone burned off the porch with the intention of rebuilding. Bell then looked online only to see she was no longer the home's owner.
She went to city hall to find out a man had declared her dead and made himself the sole owner of the house. "Braheem Hart, sole heir to Tonya Bell, deceased,” the 2014 paperwork stated.
He bought the house for a dollar, too.
“I believe this is bigger than me. This has been happening to many people,” Bell said recently, referring to the heist of her house. “I’ve been in the civil rights movement. It’s not unusual for us to be fighting for our rights. And that can take a long time.”
There so many issues with this bogus sell.
Notary public Lelia L. Hilliard, who declared that Hart had appeared before her in November 2014, provided proof of his identity and executed the sale. Hillard admitted that none of that was true. Legal documents about the issue stated she “admitted she notarized this document as a favor to her cousin.” The cousin's name was not mentioned.
Mike Dunn, a spokesperson for Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, said no one asked for proof proving Hart was an heir to Bell.
Bell has been entangled in legal issues with Affordable Homes Group Inc., a company that has bought and sold numerous homes in Philadelphia, for years.
The Greene Street house, which went through extensive renovations, was resold by Affordable Homes for $299,900. Bell received $2,213.07 for her trouble. Hart, however, is nowhere to be found.
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