Role Played By Unlicensed "Broker" In Foreclosure Rescue Ripoff Violated State R/E License Law, Enough To Sink Sale Leaseback, Says C. Fla. Civil Jury

In Sarasota, Florida, the St. Petersburg Times reports:

• In 2005, Thomas Cook told 68-year-old Yolanda Rodriguez that the St. Petersburg company he worked for could help save her home from foreclosure. Instead, Garco Inc. got the deed to the house, and Rodriguez, who was evicted, lost as much as $200,000 in equity.(1) But on Thursday, a Sarasota County jury found that the transaction that cost Rodriguez her home was invalid because Cook, acting as a broker on the deal, did not have a Florida real estate license.

• The verdict paves the way for Rodriguez to get back her 2,300-square-foot Englewood pool home. It could also provide legal ammunition for others who have lost their houses to "foreclosure rescue" companies like Garco and its owner, Gideon Rechnitz,(2) whose real estate license was revoked for alleged fraud in 1990. "A licensed real estate agent would not have been allowed to do anything Thomas Cook did," says Elizabeth Boyle, a Gulfcoast Legal Services(3) attorney who represented Rodriguez.

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• Rodriguez's case is thought to be the first in which a jury verdict hinged on whether someone involved in property transactions for a foreclosure rescue company is subject to the Florida Real Estate License Act.(4) But it is not the first case against Rechnitz and Cook to go to trial. In October, another Sarasota jury awarded $93,467 to Wanda Costa, who claimed the men scammed her out of her Port Charlotte home in violation of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. That verdict is under appeal.

For more, see Second jury finds fault with controversial foreclosure rescue deals.

(1) Reportedly, Rodriguez, now 72, said she stopped paying rent because foreclosure rescue operator Gideon Rechnitz failed to make promised repairs. He evicted her and her deaf brother in 2006 and had all of their possessions, including family photos, loaded into portable storage units, the story states. Rodriguez reportedly said she was unable to retrieve the items because they were stored in Rechnitz's name. Everything was sold at public auction, and brother and sister spent weeks in a Salvation Army shelter and cheap hotels before landing in a small apartment with donated furniture, according to the report.

(2) Rechnitz, not unknown to the reporters at the St.Petersburg Times, has been the subject of several Times articles.

(3) Gulfcoast Legal Services is a non-profit law firm providing free legal aid to income eligible residents of the greater Tampa Bay, Florida area, having offices in Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota and Hillsborough counties; and is dedicated to providing comprehensive, personal legal advocacy, counseling and education to vulnerable individuals and families.

(4) Florida law defines a broker as someone paid for acting on behalf of another person in real estate transactions. Reportedly, in a sworn deposition before trial, Cook called himself "a broker" and acknowledged he had been paid $1,975 for his dealings with Rodriguez. By finding for Rodriguez on the licensing issue, the verdict voided the entire transaction and set the stage for a March hearing in which Circuit Judge Lee Haworth could return the deed to her.