A Miami-Dade man is accused of using a decades-long friendship to take half ownership of an elderly woman’s home while she suffered from severe dementia, then collecting rent on the property for years before his arrest this week.
Andres Perez, 73, was arrested Wednesday morning at his apartment in the Horizons West complex in Kendale Lakes and booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. He faces charges of exploitation of an elderly or disabled person, organized scheme to defraud, and first-degree grand theft, according to Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office records.
Prosecutors say Perez had known the victim, who owned a townhome in Tamiami’s Villa Venezia community since 1987, for more than two decades. In May 2022, a quitclaim deed transferred half ownership of the roughly $420,000 property to Perez. The following month, he married the woman, and a court separately declared her totally incapacitated due to vascular dementia of the Alzheimer’s type.
A four-year gap before an arrest
Florida’s Department of Children and Families verified the exploitation as early as October 2022, according to court records, but Perez was not taken into custody until September 3, 2026, nearly four years later. Investigators say he collected approximately $17,600 in rental income from a tenant at the property during that span.
A judge set bond at $35,000 with a Nebbia hold, meaning Perez must prove the source of any funds used to post bail is legitimate before he can be released. He has not yet entered a plea, and the case remains under investigation by Miami-Dade County prosecutors.
Elder financial exploitation cases involving property transfers are notoriously difficult to prosecute quickly, since establishing a victim’s mental capacity at the time of a transaction often requires medical records, guardianship filings, and testimony that can take years to assemble into a charging document.
Sources: Hoodline · U.S. Department of Justice Elder Justice Initiative
