Squatting around the Christmas tree!
A Florida couple who became famous for decorating their home with whimsical holiday lights and props fit for the North Pole are accused of living illegally in the home, once owned by a Miami Dolphin player.
Mark and Kathy Hyatt “squatted” inside the upscale Plantation, Florida neighborhood where they transformed every year into a “Hyatt Extreme Christmas” home for 15 years without paying, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Broward County officials recovered $34,724 in back taxes from the property after a team of real estate appraiser detectives investigated the family for seven months, interviewed neighbors and uncovered apparent falsehoods used by the Hyatts.
The Hyatts were granted a homestead exemption that the county said should not have been granted because they were not the legal owners of the home.
“(Mark Hyatt) has received exemptions and/or assessment limitations totaling $34,724.68 over seven years. The property assessor has found that the taxpayer is not legally entitled to receive the exemption because the applicant is not the Legal Owner,” according to county property assessor records.
In 2014, the home decor became a national hit, as the city of Plantation sued Hyatt because it thought the lights’ popularity would cause accidents due to the amount of traffic it generated.WPLG
The district’s investigation looked back to 2013 because the statute of limitations only allows the office to go back 10 years, with the last three years (2020-2022) not listed in the first set of records, but still continuing in the investigation, according to the paper.
The assessor’s investigation came after Kathy Hyatt asked about a 2005 deed “resulting in the Hyatts’ illegal ownership of the subject property,” the newspaper said, citing a memo from a county-hired real estate attorney.
The lavish Christmas display was last lit in 2017 when Mark and Kathy Hyatt divorced.
While in divorce court dealing with child support and alimony, Kathy Hyatt was asked to sign over the deed to the estate when she revealed they never owned the property and the deed was fake.
Mark Hyatt died three years later at the age of 56.
Kathy Hyatt said her late husband Mark created a fake deed before the couple broke into the Plantation Acres home and began living in it.WPLG Local 10/YouTube
The Hyatts have come to live in the disputed home after private investors bought $50,000 off the home’s original mortgage, changed the locks and planned to foreclose on the home after its original owner, former Miami Dolphin Brett Perriman, defaulted on a $400,000 mortgage and faced foreclosure in 2004.
The investors were given a quitclaim deed to the property instead of an assignment of the mortgage, according to the newspaper.
At the time, the couple was looking for a place to live in Florida when they arrived at the seemingly abandoned Plantation Acres home and were told that the original owner had moved to Georgia.
Mark Hyatt, a mortgage officer at the time discovered that Perriman did not have a valid deed and accused the investor of squatting, even calling the police.
Hyatt then created a false deed to the property before breaking into the home and changing the locks, Kathy Hyatt said during an August deposition, according to the Sun Sentinel.
The couple found a way into the house and dumped everything inside the investor so the investor “couldn’t come back and say he had possession before we arrived.”
“Well, we broke in,” Kathy Hyatt told investigators. “I’ve never done that before in my life. We never pay any money to sit. We are squatters.”
In 2014, the home decor became a national hit, as the city of Plantation sued Hyatt because it thought the popularity of the lights would cause accidents due to the amount of traffic it generated.
In 2017, Mark Hyatt ousted an incumbent city councilman, just weeks after he declared victory over city hall during a legal battle.
The couple found their way into the house and dumped everything inside the investor so the investor “couldn’t come back and say he had possession before we arrived.” WPLG Local 10/YouTube
The city has spent about $427,000 in legal bills to fight the case, which Hyatt cited as an example of fiscal mismanagement during his campaign, the Sun Sentinel reported at the time.
The house is now listed on Google Maps as a real estate agency run by Kathy Hyatt.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
