A Georgia woman is fighting to stay in her home after she says she was tricked into signing it away for $0 while trying to secure a loan.
Jamie Norris, 62, of Locust Grove, transferred ownership of her metro Atlanta-area home to a company called T and T Properties Limited Inc. for no money, according to Henry County deed book records obtained by WSB-TV 2 News.
The grandmother said she had fallen $6,850 behind on her property taxes when the company offered her a loan to settle the debt.
What she believed was routine loan paperwork was, in reality, a quitclaim deed – a tactic often associated with foreclosure rescue schemes.
The predatory scam targets homeowners behind on their mortgages, luring them with false promises of saving their homes from foreclosure.
Scammers often strip homeowners of equity, charge upfront fees for services that never materialize or, as in Norris’ case, trick owners into signing over their deeds.
Norris now faces eviction for the second time, as T and T Properties has once again filed a dispossessory action against her.
‘Why would I sell them the house for nothing, just to give it to him?’ she told WSB-TV. ‘It doesn’t make sense.’
Jamie Norris (pictured), 62, of Locust Grove, Georgia, is fighting to stay in her home after she says she was tricked into signing it away for $0 while trying to secure a loan
Norris transferred ownership of her metro Atlanta home (pictured) to T and T Properties Limited Inc. for nothing after they offered a loan to cover her $6,850 in back property taxes
Norris claimed a man who worked for the company required her to sign the paperwork before issuing her the loan – a practice attorney Sarah Mancini says is far from standard.
‘He said, “You’re not signing your house over. It’s just for collateral,’ Norris told the outlet.
A quitclaim deed is a legal document that silently hands over whatever stake a person has in a property to someone else with no guarantees, no protections, and essentially, no safety net.
It’s typically used for non-sale moves: divorces, family transfers or changing ownership between spouses.
‘There’s really no good reason to have someone sign over a deed to their house if you’re lending them money,’ Mancini, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, told the outlet.
‘The person who’s claiming to help you is saying they’re lending you money to help get you out of foreclosure, but they’re in reality trying to steal the ownership of the house,’ she added.
Norris said the company was charging her $700 a month in interest-only payments on the loan, according to WSB.
‘This interest is higher than a pawn shop,’ she told the outlet.
What Norris (pictured) believed was routine loan paperwork was, in reality, a quit claim deed – a tactic often associated with foreclosure rescue schemes
Sarah Mancini (pictured), an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, told WSB that ‘the person who’s claiming to help you is saying they’re lending you money to help get you out of foreclosure, but they’re in reality trying to steal the ownership of the house’
When she requested details on paying off the loan entirely, she discovered the payout figure was much larger than the money she had received from the company.
It was at this moment that she learned T & T held the title to her home, leading her to halt all payments.
Ed Joyner, T and T’s attorney, insists the company did nothing wrong, arguing that a quitclaim deed is simply a way for a lender to protect its investment without going through foreclosure – not a scheme to deceive Norris into giving up her home.
But Mancini said that’s exactly the problem: if it’s a loan, the lender ‘should not be allowed to take the entire house.’
Nevertheless, in July, the company filed to evict Norris, claiming in court papers obtained by WSB that she was a tenant ‘delinquent’ on rent.
The court sided with Norris, determining that ‘no landlord-tenant relationship’ existed.
The company’s attorney said the title would be handed back to Norris upon full repayment of the loan, according to the outlet.
For the second time, T and T has filed a motion to remove her, claiming her debt has grown to over $12,000 with added interest, late charges and attorney fees.
For the second time, T and T has filed a motion to evict Norris, claiming her debt has grown to over $12,000 with added interest, late charges and attorney fees
Last September in Georgia, a widow’s home was allegedly claimed by an investor who paid not a single dollar for the deed, according to WSB-TV News.
Kimberly Gravitt, of Gwinnett County, was hospitalized in a mental health facility after learning she would be evicted from her own home by a company called Georgia Venture Investment Company, LLC, the outlet reported.
In 2024, the company took her to court, claiming she had agreed the previous year to sell them her home of 40 years for $150,000 but later backed out.
Georgia Venture acquired the deed to Gravitt’s home after Homesaver 911 – the company she had previously enlisted to help prevent foreclosure – signed it over to them.
That same year, the company filed a lawsuit against Homesaver 911 – a company that had also been sued by Georgia’s Attorney General for allegedly stealing homeowners’ titles. Georgia Venture argued they were the real owner of the house.
Gravitt said the company offered to return $15,000 if she would ‘just nullify your deal,’ and she agreed – yet Georgia Venture later claimed she had sold them her entire home.
‘Someone can rob you with a pen and paper just as surely as they can rob you with a loaded gun,’ Mancini told the outlet last year.
‘Be careful about signing any piece of paper connected to real estate,’ she added.