He asked, ‘What if I lie?’ on his homestead application. Cops said he then lied
A Miami Lakes man wanted to know what would happened if he lied about his marital status on an application to get a tax break on his Florida Keys House, according to investigators.
He then proceeded to do just that , lying about both his marital status and that his permanent residence was on Long Key, in the Upper Florida Keys, according to the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office.
And he soon found out what would happen.
Yusmel Bocalandro, 39, was booked into county jail on Plantation Key Monday morning on misdemeanor fraud and released a few hours later with an order to appear in court. He could not be reached for comment.
State Attorney’s Office Investigator Roy Bogue stated in his arrest affidavit that Bocalandro falsely claimed in his Nov. 4 homestead application for his Long Key home that the house was his permanent home and that he was single.
Larry Kahn, spokesman for the State Attorney’s Office, said Bocalandro was married in June 2016, and that he and his wife live full time in a house they own together in Miami Lakes.
Homeowners are allowed to receive a $25,000 property tax exemption on the first $50,000 of assessed value on their primary residence only.
The property appraiser clerk checked Bocalandro’s records after he asked her earlier in the day, before he came in to fill out the homestead exemption paperwork, what would happen “if I lie,” specifically about being married, according to the state attorney.
The clerk responded that he would be committing fraud, Kahn said.
The Long Key home in 2019 had a total assessed value of $375,442, Kahn said. And, Bogue discovered Bocalandro had been renting out the property, “which was also a deliberate falsification of the homestead exemption application,” Kahn said.
