BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Army veteran James Moye has welcomed friends to the place he's called home on Leroy Avenue for more than 25 years.
Moye has been a familiar face in his neighborhood ever since he moved in after paying a couple $26,000 cash for his home in 1996.
"At the time I was coming home from the service and all with the money I had saved up I gave it to him," Moye said.
Since then, Moye said he's planted bushes, paid city taxes, and water bills - all on a property that Erie County has no record of him owning.
Moye tells 7 Problem Solvers that he never filed the deed he got for the home with the county.
7 Problem Solvers dug through county records, which show that the couple he paid the $26,000 to didn't pay their county taxes on the home in 1993, 1994, or 1995. The house fell into foreclosure at the end of 1995 - a few months before Moye paid the couple $26,000 cash, with no receipt.
Moye said he only paid city taxes thinking everything with the county was taken care of. It turns out a trust had been paying county taxes for years.
"$26,000 down the drain. And when you don't have any family or anyone to stand up for you what can you do? Except what? Have a broken heart and wish you not made a mistake?"
Moye tells 7 Problem Solvers that he never saw any notices of foreclosure in the 26 years he's lived there - until recently after a man based in New York City bought the home legally last December.
Moye left signs outside of the home explaining the situation, saying he paid a $26,000 quote "to a couple who gave me a phony deed."
The actual owner of the home told 7 Problem Solvers that he needs Moye out of the home by the end of December at the absolute latest.
Moye currently has a Cash App account to help with his finances towards moving out of the Leroy Avenue home: $JamesMoye123.
