Man who says he was scammed out of his Fort Worth home is granted restraining order
A judge granted a temporary restraining order for a man who said he was tricked into signing over his home of 20 years in Fort Worth.
Hoang Nguyen, 72, said he was scammed out of his Fort Worth home by a couple who cleaned his house several times — now he’s trying to get it back. His family said he was targeted because he does not read English and has some mental impairments from falling off a ladder 10 years ago.
The family asked for a judge to prohibit the couple from being within 100 feet of the house in the 7400 block of Creekfall Drive, from selling Nguyen’s property that was still inside the house, or from communicating with Nguyen.
On Dec. 2, a judge granted the restraining order against the couple on behalf of Nguyen.
At a hearing Wednesday, the judge granted a temporary injunction against one of the people Nguyen said stole his home. The court has not been able to contact the other person, Armentha Faye. The injunction allows Nguyen to change the locks to the house.
Meanwhile, Nguyen was arrested on Nov. 30 and charged with criminal mischief. According to a police report, Nguyen threw a brick at Armentha Faye’s car several times on Nov. 3, damaging the passenger and side door and shattering a window.
As of Wednesday, Nguyen, who said he served as a translator for the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War, remained in the Tarrant County Jail, according to court records.
Legal problems begin
Nguyen’s legal fight for his home started in early 2019 when he began receiving code violations due to trash that built up in his yard. His wife moved out of the home due to her poor health and he lived alone, he said, and had trouble maintaining the property on his own.
Nguyen received $14,000 worth of citations as garbage — his own and his neighbors’ — piled up in the yard.
Nguyen, who came to Fort Worth from Vietnam in 1998, went to court and explained he did not understand what the citations said, and he would not be able to pay the fine. After the hearing, a couple approached Nguyen and said they would be able to help him, Nguyen and his daughter, Vivian Nguyen, said.
The couple, who Nguyen identified as Ebrima and Armentha Faye, cleaned his home several times — and Nguyen gave them $80 for their work. In May, the Fayes asked him to sign a document while in his garage, he said.
The Fayes told Nguyen the document was to prove they were allowed to be in the house in case his daughters came by and wanted to know why they were there, Nguyen said.
However, the document, which the Star-Telegram obtained a copy of, was actually a deed for Nguyen and his wife’s house. Specifically, it was a quitclaim deed, which are rarely used in Texas, that sold Nguyen’s home to Ebrima and Armentha Faye for $5,100.
Nguyen said he would not have knowingly sold his home, which is valued at $181,000, and that he never received the money.
Still, the deed gave the couple legal ownership of the home.
Eviction
A month and a half later, the Tarrant County Constables office received a court order to evict Nguyen from the home. Todd Tiemann, chief deputy constable of Precinct 1, went to the home on behalf of the constable’s office. Officials told Nguyen he needed to leave the house because it did not belong to him.
Tiemann said when the office receives a court order to evict someone, the constables do not have the power to dispute that order.
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years and we all knew something stunk about it. But we can only go so far if they don’t want to help themselves, and we can only go so far in helping them,” Tiemann said about Nguyen’s case.
Tiemann said his office first contacted Nguyen to post an eviction notice, and two of Nguyen’s daughters explained he may have been cheated out of the house. Another deputy from the constable’s office encouraged the family to get an attorney, and the constable’s office contacted Adult Protective Services.
The constable’s office is not allowed to give legal advice — Tiemann said they tried to encourage the family to take legal action without crossing that line.
However, Adult Protective Services never returned Tiemann’s calls, he said, and the family did not hire a lawyer in time.
In response to questions from the Star-Telegram, Adult Protective Services officials said they couldn’t comment because their cases are confidential by law.
The family could have taken certain legal action to stop the eviction, such as disputing the deed in court or requesting a temporary injunction before the eviction took place, Tiemann said.
“We did what we could with this man, and he didn’t want to help himself and the family didn’t want to help him until it was too late,” Tiemann said.
The Nguyen family’s first language is Vietnamese. Tiemann said he thinks the language barrier may have contributed to lack of action by the family.
Vivian Nguyen said helping her father through this process has been a challenge. She lives in Arlington and has two children to care for. Nguyen’s other daughter used to live with him, but the relationship has been strained.
On Nov. 16, Nguyen said a group of men attacked him inside the home. In response, on Nov. 20, he finally left his house of 20 years.
Tiemann said the constable’s office, which is a separate entity from the sheriff’s department, had its hands tied in this case.
“We don’t go out there and say, ‘We’re going to kick this person out of their house today,’” he said. “We’re just the messenger. That’s all we are. We are the messenger of the court.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
