Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Company Must Pay Estate in Wrongful Auction

A King County judge on Friday ordered one of the West Coast's major players in the foreclosure industry to pay more than $230,000 to the estate of a disabled senior citizen whose Whidbey Island home was wrongfully auctioned off after she fell behind on payments.

Legal experts say it appears to be one of the first home-foreclosure cases to reach a jury verdict in Washington.

In court, Quality said it didn't have the discretion to postpone the auction and that only the lender, Washington Mutual, could grant a delay.

At the auction, an investor bought Halstien's house for $1 over Quality's opening bid and flipped the property six months later for $235,000, getting the equity that Halstien, a retired factory worker, had built up over decades.

Superior Court Judge Barbara Mack's order finalizes a jury verdict in late January that found Quality and its San Diego-based parent company, Quality Loan Service Corp., violated the state Consumer Protection Act and breached its contract with Halstien.

Full Article and Source:
Company Must Pay Estate in Wrongful Auction

5 comments:

StandUp said...

Hooray!

Anonymous said...

I hope this person isn't a guardianship ward.

Betty said...

Boy, the first thing they do is want to sell or auction the home. In effect, what that accomplishes is taking away the person's lifeboat - forcing him/her into a facility.

Lou said...

In reading the full article I see there is a "court appointed guardian" behind the schene here. It would be interesting to see how much, if any of this money will go on to the family heirs. How much will be eaten up by the attorneys and court appointed guardian?

lisahalstien said...

im dorothy halstiens daughter they came in to our family sad thing that are not true' my mother allways took care of our family and we took care of her.they came to our home took our mom & loving grandma we only ode 7000 mor on our home they piace her in a home shegot dehiderated.4 times went to hopital 4 time& broke her hip 2weeks of being in there' she would bag me to take her home.i went to see here often.she past away.theydid tell the family two weekslater our nebor told me. the day after she past they sold our home