Owner leaves his loft empty — then sees a man living inside

[struggle4progress]

The owner had walked away, expecting a foreclosure that never came. The other man says a real estate agent let him move in and told him where to mail rent. A battle for the loft begins.
By Sam Allen, Los Angeles Times
December 2, 2012, 6:27 p.m.

Jeffrey Cote was driving home from work one evening this spring when he noticed a light on inside Unit 312 of the Little Tokyo Lofts.

This was the industrial loft he had bought in downtown Los Angeles for $647,000 — with no money down — at the top of the market in 2007. He thought it would be a great investment. It was also the loft he had abandoned less than two years later, after filing for bankruptcy and expecting the bank to foreclose.

The loft was still in Cote's name, so the light surprised him. A few weeks later, he and his girlfriend decided to investigate. They got off the elevator and saw a new welcome mat outside Unit 312. When his key didn't work, Cote knocked on the door ...

Glover, 42, said he had noticed a vacancy at Loft 312 in early 2009 while moving out of a different unit inside the building. He said he met a real estate agent in the hallway who claimed to represent the unit's owner.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-loft-squatter-20121202,0,2916945.story

[Selatius]

1. Methinks the "agent" who rented the loft to Glover needs to be convicted of fraud.

Glover may technically be a squatter, but Glover was being fleeced by the real estate agent who apparently had false credentials.

[bluestate10]

2. The rent was free money for a scumbag. There are people out there that look for situations

like the one in the story. They have nothing to lose, my guess is that the PO box was rented in a false name.

[Bonobo]

3. Was it Julian Assange? nt

[Lucinda]

4. O.o

[Egalitarian Thug]

5. LMAO!

[struggle4progress]

6. No: he says he doesn't want to come to the US