A man who allegedly rented out a vacant house without telling its owner was in Cobb County Jail on Friday, charged with taking money from an unsuspecting tenant, Channel 2 Action News reports.
John Harris, 44, is being held on $200,000 bond on burglary, theft by deception and forgery charges, according to the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office.
In an interview before his arrest, Harris told Channel 2 he was CEO of New Life Granted, a company that leases homes on behalf of their owners.
But Cobb County police say that in at least one instance, Harris broke into a house, changed the locks, drafted a bogus lease and rented it to someone for $1,000 a month with a $3,000 deposit.
When the original owner came by to check on the home, which had been listed for sale, he found people living inside and had no idea who they were, police said.
In another case reported on a week ago by Channel 2, a woman said she had rented a Clayton County home from New Life thinking she had a lease-to-own contract, and had spent thousands of dollars making improvements to it.
She later learned the home was owned by Fannie Mae, which did not recognize the contract.
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