Pearl City woman, 95, wrongfully evicted from her own home

WMC Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee

PEARL CITY, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A 95-year-old Pearl City woman was wrongfully evicted from her home this week, when a property protection company mistakenly identified her home for her next door neighbor's foreclosed unit.

Felicidad Marquez has owned her home since 1969.

But on Tuesday, her locks were suddenly changed and she was forced to leave.

"I felt like this is not mine anymore and it hurts," she said, holding back tears.

Daughter Felicia Marquez-Wong says Ohio-based Safeguard Properties was ordered by mortgage company, Rushmore Loan Management, to lock up the property. But Marquez-Wong says the company confused her mother's home with the adjoining duplex unit, which has been foreclosed and vacant for years.

"We didn't know when we were going to be able to get back in the house so we naturally started to bring things out," Marquez-Wong said. "They locked the wrong house is basically what they had done."

Marquez-Wong says it's a mistake that could have been prevented if proper protocols were taken. The family was never given an eviction notice.

"We felt very violated that they would do something like this without our permission," said Marquez-Wong.

"I don't know the feeling, it's hard," her mother said. "My own place I could not get in."

Two days passed with unanswered calls to Rushmore and Safeguard Properties. Marquez-Wong says it wasn't until she filed a police report that she finally got the code to the lock box.

She also provided documents showing her mother owned the property.

"We didn't get a chance to enter the house until two days later," Marquez-Wong said.

She said Rushmore admitted to the mistake but never apologized. Her mother's door was unnecessarily damaged in the process.

"It's not something you would do to someone's home," she said. "Just create a big hole where you can see inside your doorknob."

Marquez-Wong says it's been a stressful week and is worried other families will fall victim to unfair evictions.

"What you folks did really traumatized my mother and my family," she said. "Please don't do that to other homes."

Hawaii News Now spoke with a local attorney who says the entire process was illegal because no eviction noticed was issued. Homeowners have a right to a court decision first.

Calls to Rushmore Loan Management Services and Safeguard Properties were not immediately answered.

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Pearl City woman, 95, wrongfully evicted from her own home