A San Francisco man is in some pretty serious legal trouble after getting arrested. KRON 4 reports that Darron Dale Singleton Jr. has been convicted of several crimes after he was caught trying to sell the home of a deceased homeowner. The only problem was that Singleton wasn’t legally entitled to sell the property, nor was he allowed to make decisions on behalf of the estate.
Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like any of the charges have to do with the death of the late homeowner.
KRON 5 reports that Singleton got busted when the family of the man who lived at 136 Rio Verde Street found out what was going on and called police. Unfortunately for Singleton, he was at the home when the cops showed up, and he used forged documents to try to explain what he was doing.
Now, he faces a lengthy prison sentence for his crimes and is out on his own recognizance (while wearing a GPS tracker) until his sentencing takes place this fall.
Singleton Had Forged Documents in an Effort to Sell the House
According to KRON 4, Singleton created a series of forged documents to help him get through the process of selling the late homeowner’s property. He even used the ID of an attorney as part of his plan, which he produced in an attempt to steal money from the person he was trying to sell the house to.
The District Attorney’s Office filed more than a dozen charges against Singleton, saying he “tried to step in and take ownership of the property with no valid claim.” While 15 of those charges were ultimately dismissed, he pleaded no contest to five felony charges, which included filing false documents, two counts of forgery, perjury, and identity theft.
Now, he’s looking at up to four years in state prison, but he won’t know the extent of his sentence until his Sept. 18 hearing.
Homeowners Can Protect Their Property by Setting up a Will
Most people don’t like thinking about their own mortality. But unfortunately for homeowners, if you want to ensure that your property falls into the right hands after your death, you need to start planning ahead of time. There are a lot of different ways to do that, depending on the state you live in and what you’d like to see happen to your property and assets when you die.
The National Council on Aging says wills and trusts are both good ways to have a say in what happens to your estate after you’re gone. However, these two documents do different things, so it’s important to sit down with a financial planner or lawyer ahead of time so you can talk through your options and decide which document is best for you. Then, once you have it drawn up, it’s important to make sure that a signed copy of it gets into the hands of someone you trust to carry out your wishes, like a family member or legal representative.
It’s sad to think that people would prey on a grieving family and try to sell their loved one’s home out from under them, but clearly these things happen, so it’s important to plan ahead.