Two different
Dunelanders on Tuesday filed complaints with the Chesterton Police
Department about a realtor who, they said, signed them to “rent-to-own”
agreements, then put them in houses which they were later told were in
foreclosure.
According to
police, a Liberty Township woman advised that in November 2010 she signed a
rent-to-own agreement with the realtor for a residence in the 200 block of
Talon Drive. Under that agreement, the woman made monthly payments of
$1,610.25 to the realtor. Then, at some later time not specified in the CPD
report, she began receiving notices “that the house was in foreclosure.”
The woman tried to
contact the realtor but “he would not return her calls or e-mails,” she
advised.
The woman moved out
of the house in September 2013.
She reported a
financial loss of $40,000.
A few hours later
on Tuesday, a Porter man gave the CPD essentially the same story about the
same realtor. In January 2008 he began to rent a home--for $1,200 a
month--in the 600 block of 23rd Street, after signing a rent-to-own
agreement with the realtor.
More than two years
later, in April 2010, the man was notified by the Porter County Sheriff’s
Police “that the property was foreclosed and that he had to leave
immediately.”
The man reported a
financial loss of $20,000.
Both reports have
been forwarded to the CPD’s Detective Bureau for further investigation.