Anybody ever get a divorce?
Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 9:34 am
This is just a short story for your enjoyment, with humor and a possible class C felony. And be glad it's not happening to you.
My wife divorced her previous husband in 2001, she was awarded among other things the house they lived in, with the stipulation he paid property taxes and utilities, and he could continue to live there until he could no longer take care of himself or died. If, on the outside chance he outlived her, the house would revert to him. But, for legal purposes, the house is hers. It is also completely paid for.
We periodically check the county property tax records to verify he is paying the taxes as ordered, and this year noticed my wife's name was no longer on the property as an owner.
What he had done is write a hand written note on the divorce decree that she had died last year [she's very much alive], presented it to the county treasurer's office, and they cheerfully removed her name as the owner of the property and listed him as the sole owner. He falsely declared her dead for the sole purpose of stealing a house awarded to her in their divorce settlement.
We contacted an attorney, and the cops, and everybody is salivating at various aspects of who to go after on this: the husband for falsifying by modifying legal documents, or the county for accepting anything less than an actual death certificate to change ownership of the house.
If anybody out there has any kind of language in their divorce decree in any way similar to this, watch out--people will stoop to any lengh to steal and the government is too stupid to prevent it.
My wife divorced her previous husband in 2001, she was awarded among other things the house they lived in, with the stipulation he paid property taxes and utilities, and he could continue to live there until he could no longer take care of himself or died. If, on the outside chance he outlived her, the house would revert to him. But, for legal purposes, the house is hers. It is also completely paid for.
We periodically check the county property tax records to verify he is paying the taxes as ordered, and this year noticed my wife's name was no longer on the property as an owner.
What he had done is write a hand written note on the divorce decree that she had died last year [she's very much alive], presented it to the county treasurer's office, and they cheerfully removed her name as the owner of the property and listed him as the sole owner. He falsely declared her dead for the sole purpose of stealing a house awarded to her in their divorce settlement.
We contacted an attorney, and the cops, and everybody is salivating at various aspects of who to go after on this: the husband for falsifying by modifying legal documents, or the county for accepting anything less than an actual death certificate to change ownership of the house.
If anybody out there has any kind of language in their divorce decree in any way similar to this, watch out--people will stoop to any lengh to steal and the government is too stupid to prevent it.
