Imagine not having to pay rent or housing costs for almost a decade? Imagine all the money you’d save! Imagine how well your family, your children could thrive.
It’s a beautiful thought that sounds like something out of an adult fairytale.
But this was a reality for Lisa Hardy. The mother of three lived in her Indianapolis home rent-free for about nine years.
“I thanked God every single day,” she told IndyStar. “There’s not one day I haven’t thanked the good Lord for the opportunity to live here without rent.”
It began in 2005 when Hardy started working as a leasing agent for Showhomes Property Mangement. They told Hardy that she could move into one of their houses and live there rent-free while she was working for the company
“They said, ‘Pick a house,” Hardy said of her “blessing.”
So she chose a two-story, three bedroom house that was built in 1910.
“There was really no time limit on how long I would be her,” she told CBS in the morning. “As time goes on I was thinking they would plan to put me on a lease.”
But that never happened. What did happened was that her boss was arrested for fraud and money laundering and the real estate company collapsed. Hardy, however, ended up living there undetected for almost a decade.
She just paid her utilities and made it her home.
It’s believed that the unpaid property taxes went undetected because of the housing crisis where a massive number of fraudulent loans were handed out and caused thousands of people in Indianapolis to lose their homes.
There were so many uninhabited homes that the city couldn’t keep track of them. So while people were ousted from their homes and dreams due to greedy people those homes were left empty, except for Hardy’s
Eventually, the city caught on and tried to sell the house to get the back taxes owed in 2007, 2008 and again in 2010 but the house kept coming off the roles for some reason.
Hardy told CBS in the Morning that she tried to buy the house but it kept being taken off the auction block.
Eventually, it was put back up for sale but at that point, it was too expensive for Hardy. A company from Singapore bought it and agreed to keep Hardy as a rent-paying tenant. So her free ride has ended up it was a blessing that kept her family safe while it lasted.
Learn more about Hardy’s incredible story in the video below.
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