Texas Legal Aid Firm Files Suit Alleging Developer Tricked Seven Families Into Signing Over Deeds To Property They Just Agreed To Buy

In San Juan, Texas, The Monitor reports:

• Seven families are suing a developer, saying he tricked them out of the property they had just agreed to purchase. The lawsuit against William Schwarz alleges he used deceptive practices to trick low-income, Spanish-speaking families into signing the titles to their property over to him the same day the families made down payments on the land.

• None of the families mentioned in the suit have lost their homes at this point, but the developer is moving in that direction, said Corinna Spencer-Scheurich, an attorney for the South Texas Civil Rights Project who filed the suit on behalf of the families. She said the closing documents they signed could allow the developer to evict them from the property at any time.(1)

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• The lawsuit against William Schwarz accuses him of violating the [Texas] Deceptive Trade Practices Act and committing three types of fraud.

For more, see Lawsuit filed against developer alleges fraud.

See also, Texas Civil Rights Review: STCRP Attorney: Warranty Deeds Cheat Colonia Residents.

(1) According to the story, area community organizers have been meeting with families in two local subdivisions to try to determine how widespread the practice may have been, Spencer-Scheurich said. She suspects hundreds of families were affected.