All of Fotis Dulos’ properties now in foreclosure

By Lisa Backus

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Photo: Nathan Spotts / Contributed Photo 

 

The attorney representing Jennifer Dulos’ mother expects to soon receive the title to the home at 4 Jefferson Crossing in Farmington.

FARMINGTON — The one-time property empire owned by Fotis Dulos and his high-end real estate company is being dismantled by foreclosure proceedings as his estate makes its way through probate court.

Fotis Dulos died Jan. 30 from an apparent suicide while facing murder and other charges in connection with his estranged wife’s death and disappearance. Jennifer Dulos was last seen on May 24, 2019 and has been presumed dead based on blood evidence found in the garage of her New Canaan home, according to arrest warrants.

Attorney Richard Weinstein, representing Jennifer Dulos’ mother, expects to have the title to the 14,000-square-foot Jefferson Crossing property in Farmington by late July.

Jennifer and Fotis Dulos lived in the home until June 2017 when she left with their five children for New Canaan and filed for divorce.

Fotis Dulos remained in the home with his former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, and her daughter. At the time of his death, Fotis Dulos had not made mortgage payments for about a year, Weinstein said.

Weinstein said he will put the house up for sale once he receives the title. He expects a judge to grant him the title as soon as this week, but there will then be a 20-day appeal period.

Gloria Farber moved to foreclose on the house last year as Fotis Dulos was the prime suspect in the death and disappearance of her daughter.

Five other properties owned by Fotis Dulos are also in foreclosure proceedings, court records show.

A Superior Court judge recently awarded Farber nearly $2 million in two lawsuits she filed against Fotis Dulos on claims he failed to repay her family business loans made to him while he was married to her daughter.

Attorney Kent Mawhinney, who at one point represented Fotis Dulos in the lawsuits, and Troconis have each been charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the Jennifer Dulos case. Troconis also faces tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges.

The estate of Fotis Dulos is now in probate court as Farber raises the couple’s five children. The items owned by the Dulos children that were still in the Jefferson Crossing house were retrieved last week, Weinstein said.

Troconis had also filed paperwork with the probate court in Farmington to retrieve her personal property from the home.

Hartford Superior Court Judge Cesar Noble agreed Thursday to allow Farber to receive $25,000 from the estate in legal fees for bringing forward one of the lawsuits, which claimed Fotis Dulos stopped paying a $500,000 loan that was used to help build the Jefferson Crossing house.

People’s Bank has started foreclosure proceedings on three other Farmington properties owned by the Fore Group at 80, 84 and 88 Mountain Spring Road, court records show. Harry Masiello, a longtime friend of Fotis Dulos who loaned him $600,000 in 2017, is now foreclosing on an Avon property at 585 Deercliff Road, which is just a few hundred feet from the Jefferson Crossing home.

The Savings Bank of Danbury started foreclosure proceedings in late 2019 on a Sturbridge Hill Road home in New Canaan that Fore Group had developed and planned to sell.

Farber and Masiello are named as defendants in several of the foreclosures since they have liens on the properties. The properties at 80, 84 and 88 Mountain Spring also have a $6 million lien placed by a bail bond agent who signed off on the $6 million bond that released Fotis Dulos from prison in January when he was charged with murder.

The probate court is still working on “sensitive issues” as the estate is finalized, Weinstein said. All money remaining from the probate process will go to the children who have been in Farber’s care since their mother disappeared, Weinstein said.

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All of Fotis Dulos’ properties now in foreclosure

Mount Vernon homeowner accuses ex-con disbarred lawyer of mortgage fraud

By Bill Heltzel

A Mount Vernon woman claims she and her husband were fooled into paying $331,500 to a disbarred attorney to ostensibly pay off their home mortgage.

Tricia P. Williams sued the ex-lawyer, Rafael M. Pantoja on April 16 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains to get back the payments.

The adversary bankruptcy proceeding also names Rachel Thull, Levanta Global Inc., BTW Trust Inc. and others as players in the alleged scheme.

Williams and her husband, Barrington, had fallen behind on their home loan payments in 2013, according to the complaint, and Wells Fargo Bank foreclosed on the property.

Tricia Williams filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition last year, declaring $513,365 in assets and more than $1 million in liabilities. The house on Tenth Avenue South, Mount Vernon, was valued at $420,000, but the couple owed the bank $1,030,329.

In 2018, according to the adversary proceeding, a real estate broker arranged for Barrington Williams to meet Pantoja at the Levanta office in the Seagram Building in  Manhattan. The broker allegedly depicted Pantoja as a high-powered lawyer who could negotiate a short payoff on the mortgage.

Pantoja, of the Bronx, was disbarred in 1996 and again in 2008, according to the complaint, and served two stints in prison totaling more than 14 years on grand larceny charges.

In the second case, a 2008 ABA Journal article states, Pantoja assumed his deceased father’s identity, misrepresented himself as a lawyer and obtained nearly $1.8 million in real estate financing through fraudulent mortgage transactions.

Barrington Williams met with Pantoja and Thull in June 2018, and was allegedly told that he and his wife qualified for Levanta’s toxic mortgage release services and loss mitigation services.

The couple had to deed their house to BTW Trust Inc., in care of Levanta, and pay $85,000 in fees and $254,000 to pay off Wells Fargo. The unpaid balance on the loan was then $900,000.

Levanta was supposed to negotiate a short payoff with Wells Fargo.

“We are experts in mastering this process in the face of the most challenging foreclosure circumstances,” the service agreement states. But “there is no guarantee of success in satisfying a loan for less than the amount due.”

From June 2018 to October 2019, the Williamses transferred $331,500 to Levanta, the complaint states, but Levanta did not negotiate a payoff with Wells Fargo.

Pantoja, Thull and Levanta were “part of a fraudulent scheme” to obtain the couple’s money, according to the complaint, and to get the deed to their property “by virtue of fraud.”

Tricia Williams is asking the court to deem the house as property of her Chapter 13 bankruptcy estate and to nullify the $331,500 in payments.

Pantoja and Thull did not immediately respond to a telephone message asking for their side of the story.

Tricia Williams is represented by White Plains attorneys Todd S. Cushner and James J. Rufo.

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Mount Vernon homeowner accuses ex-con disbarred lawyer of mortgage fraud

A Paradigm Shift: The End Of Inheritance For The Middle Class

by Patricia Barnes 

Diversity & Inclusion

I am an attorney, author and consultant on employment discrimination.

ASSOCIATED PRESS.

 

Increasingly, the old family homestead is not being passed down to the family when the parents die.

Older parents are taking advantage of reverse mortgages to pay off credit cards and to escape poverty and debt. This reduces equity in the home and often leads to foreclosure, leaving traditional heirs with nothing but memories.

Not only are reverse mortgage companies feasting upon the assets of older Americans; so too are health insurers and prescription drug companies.

Moreover, seniors on a fixed income were adversely affected by President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which raised the threshold on medical expense tax deductions and placed a cap of $10,000 on the itemized deductibility of state and local taxes.

America seems to be in the midst of a paradigm shift. Wealth transfer is skipping the deceased’s traditional heirs and going directly into the pockets of mortgage companies, banks, international corporations and the government.

The Lure of Reverse Mortgages

An alarming percentage of older Americans have insufficient money to cover basic necessities. According to the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, one-third of senior households have no money left over each month or are in debt after meeting essential expenses. This makes them vulnerable to the lure of reverse mortgages.

Reverse mortgages allow homeowners age 62 and above to withdraw a portion of their home’s equity to help them pay expenses in retirement. The debt usually comes due when the borrower dies and is repaid through the sale of the home. However, borrowers can face foreclosure while living if they fall behind on property taxes or homeowner’s insurance.

USA Today recently did an investigation of foreclosure actions related to reverse mortgages and found they are disproportionately concentrated among poor minority homeowners in urban areas, including San Francisco, Chicago, Miami and Philadelphia.

It should come as no surprise that older Americans need income in retirement.

Little more than a decade ago, the U.S. was plunged into the worst recession in 100 years due to financial misdealing (involving risky mortgages) that led to the collapse of Wall Street. Many older workers lost good jobs, pensions and health care. Many spent down their savings. Few had the time or opportunity to rebuild.

Older workers today, and especially women, continue to suffer from epidemic levels of age discrimination in hiring. Many are relegated to low-wage part-time work until they are dumped into a financially insecure retirement.  The average Social Security benefit in 2019 was $17,532 but the actual benefit is far lower for women and minorities due to pay gaps, discrimination and other challenges. These groups also tend to lack pensions and savings. The Social Security Administration says 43% of single Social Security recipients aged 65+ depend on Social Security for 90% or more of their income. Meanwhile, Go Banking Rate recently estimated the cost of a comfortable retirement in the least expensive state (Mississippi) in the United States is more than $50,000 a year.

It is disappointing  for adult children to discover too late that their parents tapped out the equity of a home that, in some situations, their parents had inherited from their parents. It is  tragic when their inheritance disappeared into the coffers of a predatory lender. But what are older homeowners supposed to do in the absence of effective federal, state and local policy initiatives that allow them to age in place with dignity?

Poor Public Policy

In response to the USA Today series, Peter Bell, Chief Executive Officer of The National Reverse Mortgage Leaders Association, called reverse mortgages a “lifesaver” for seniors who “have little to no savings and rely primarily on Social Security.” He notes seniors may be ineligible for home equity loans and cash-out refinancing because of insufficient income to cover monthly payments or poor credit profiles.

However, forcing seniors to take out reverse mortgages to stave off poverty represents poor public policy at best.

For one thing, taxpayers are footing the final bill. The Federal Housing Administration, a part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, insures reverse mortgages, otherwise known as Home Equity Conversion Mortgages or HECMs. As USA Today pointed out, the FHA fund is in the red more than $13.6 billion because of an increase in claims paid out to reverse mortgage lenders since the recession.

Congress has done nothing to help retirees. However, State Rep. John B. Larson, D-CT, the Ranking Member of the House Ways & Means Subcommittee on Social Security, has  proposed the  Social Security 2100 Act, HR 1902, which would increase Social Security benefits by about 2% and set the minimum benefit at 25% above the poverty line. It would ensure the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment reflects actual costs incurred by seniors and would cut taxes for more than 12 million Social Security recipients. Moreover, the bill, which has 210 cosponsors (all Democrats), would increase funding coming into the system. Presently, payroll taxes are not collected on wages over $132,900. This legislation would apply the payroll tax to wages above $400,000, which would affect the top 0.4% of wage earners. Initially, earnings between $139,900 in 2019 and $400,000 would not face payroll taxes but this “donut hole” would eventually disappear. The bill also would phase in an increase in the contribution rate so that by 2043 workers and employers would pay 7.4% instead of 6.2% today.

Several hearings have been held on the bill, which was originally introduced in 2017 and is supported by the NAACP, NOW and Latinos for a Secure Retirement. A final version, incorporating amendments, is expected this fall.

If Congress continues to do nothing, America’s retirees will face increasingly difficult choices. These choices will inevitably trickle down to their children, who will be deprived of an inheritance that was customary for prior generations. This will be the end of inheritance as we know it for all but the most wealthy.

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A Paradigm Shift: The End Of Inheritance For The Middle Class

Seniors were sold a risk-free retirement with reverse mortgages. Now they face foreclosure.

Click to Watch Video

In a stealth aftershock of the Great Recession, nearly 100,000 loans that allowed senior citizens to tap into their home equity have failed, blindsiding elderly borrowers and their families and dragging down property values in their neighborhoods.

In many cases, the worst toll has fallen on those ill-equipped to shoulder it: urban African Americans, many of whom worked for most of their lives, then found themselves struggling in retirement.

Alarming reports from federal investigators five years ago led the Department of Housing and Urban Development to initiate a series of changes to protect seniors. USA TODAY’s review of government foreclosure data found a generation of families fell through the cracks and continue to suffer from reverse mortgage loans written a decade ago.

These elderly homeowners were wooed into borrowing money through the special program by attractive sales pitches or a dire need for cash – or both. When they missed a paperwork deadline or fell behind on taxes or insurance, lenders moved swiftly to foreclose on the home. Those foreclosures wiped out hard-earned generational wealth built in the decades since the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Leroy Roebuck, 86, rode the bus his entire career to a nearby curtain manufacturer. When he needed to make home repairs, he turned to reverse mortgages after seeing an ad on television.

Ten years ago, he forgot to renew his homeowners insurance, which cost about $2,000 a year. Including fees and penalties, his loan servicer says he now owes more than $20,000.

Roebuck’s first foreclosure notice came in the mail six years ago, and he is still fighting to hold on to the brick walk-up he bought from his parents in 1970, living in it through a special health exemption to foreclosure. 

“I told my son, ‘Never. They ain’t gonna take this house,’ ” Roebuck said. “I’ll go to the deep blue sea, they’re not going to take this house.”

Elderly homeowners and their adult children told similar stories in big city neighborhoods across the USA.

Borrowers living near the poverty line in pockets of Chicago, Baltimore, Miami, Detroit, Philadelphia and Jacksonville, Florida, are among the hardest hit, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis of more than 1.3 million loan records. USA TODAY worked in partnership with with Grand Valley State University, with support from the McGraw Center for Business Journalism.

Consumer advocates said the analysis supports what they have complained about for years – that unscrupulous lenders targeted lower-income, black neighborhoods and encouraged elderly homeowners to borrow money while glossing over the risks and requirements.

USA TODAY found that reverse mortgages end in foreclosure six times more often in predominantly black neighborhoods than in neighborhoods that are 80% white.  

Even comparing only poorer areas, black neighborhoods fare worse. In ZIP codes where most residents make less than $40,000, the analysis found reverse mortgage foreclosure rates were six times higher in black neighborhoods than in white ones.

The foreclosure disparity resembles a more familiar scenario from the late 2000s, when subprime lenders targeted specific neighborhoods with risky loans doomed to fail, according to the nation’s lead reverse mortgage researcher.

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Seniors were sold a risk-free retirement with reverse mortgages. Now they face foreclosure.

Homeless, 84-year-old war veteran twins say 'it's hell' after home foreclosed

Clifford and Gary Koekoek, 84-year-old twins who've survived living under Nazi occupation and fighting in the jungles of Vietnam, are now in "hell" and sleeping in their car after a bank foreclosed on their California home in October.

Born in the Netherlands, Clifford and Gary grew up under Nazi rule before coming to the U.S., where the brothers worked in Hollywood and then served their new country at war. But the brothers told FOX 40 Sacramento nothing they've lived through compares to their current predicament.

"It's a lot of stress," Clifford said, holding back tears. "I’d rather go back to the war and get shot at, than this crap.”

The Koekoek's recent housing plight started in 2007, when the brothers wanted to fix the roof on a Fair Oaks home they bought from their mother, and which had been in their family since 1984.

"We took a loan thinking that we had a conventional loan,” Gary said.

The loan, however, turned out to be an adjustable rate loan, with payments getting higher over time -- until the two couldn't afford it. After their home was foreclosed, the two were kicked out and began sleeping in one shared car.

"Right now, I'm broke,” Clifford told FOX 40. "Sometimes, we don't eat."

The two now spend most of their time just walking the streets and sitting at the Sacramento Public Library in neighboring Orangevale. Gary said he spends most of his time looking over deed records to figure out how the twins can win their home back.

"I would almost say it's hell," Gary said.

A friend of the family is now trying to help, launching a social media push and a GoFundMe account to help find the two men permanent housing.

Aaron Hoerner told FOX 40 the experience has given him a new perspective on homelessness.

"It's easy to walk by and not look at their situation. But if you stop and talk to somebody, everybody has a story,” he said.

Full Article & Source:
Homeless, 84-year-old war veteran twins say 'it's hell' after home foreclosed

Metro Detroit dad says probate scandal nearly cost him $70,000

(WXYZ) - The 7 Investigators have been exposing a disturbing pattern of some public officials and real estate brokers taking over estates after someone dies, leaving the rightful heirs with very little.

Here’s what’s been happening: Real Estate Broker Ralph Roberts has teamed up with some Attorney General-appointed lawyers called Public Administrators. The Public Administrators and Roberts’ company, Probate Asset Recovery, bill the estates for thousands of dollars, plus Roberts gets real estate commissions when they sell the homes that are at stake in the estates after someone dies. The Public Administrators then take legal fees from the estate.

“I find properties. I believe there’s a benefit, so I then tell a public administrator, here’s the benefit there,” Roberts told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo in November 2016.

Cecil St. Pierre was one of those Attorney General-appointed Public Administrators. He’s also the Warren City Council President.

“They messed with the wrong family this time,” said Petar Georgievski. When Georgievski’s mother passed away last August, she used a Quit Claim Deed to give her Warren house to her son.

Georgievski says he later found out that money was owed for a small loan on the home, and his lawyer tried to address it with the bank. But without warning, Georgievski says the house was sold at Sheriff’s Sale.  (Click to Continue)

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Metro Detroit dad says probate scandal nearly cost him $70,000

90-year-old woman foreclosed, evicted from home of over 60 years

Rob & Gloria Turano

By Kevin Shea | For NJ.com 

LAWRENCE -- It wasn't supposed to end this way.

Gloria Turano thought she'd be living on Skillman Avenue when she died, in the ranch home her late husband Louis built for them in 1953. She never wanted to leave it, and the decades of memories of raising a family it holds for her.

"I thought the undertaker would take me out of here," the 90-year-old Turano said with a smile recently, sitting on a couch in the home's den.

But as she spoke, the house was not hers anymore.

It belonged to Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage company, which bought it for $100 at a sheriff's sale last year after a reverse mortgage company foreclosed on it - shutting down a loan Turano took in 2004.

She borrowed the money to help her pay her property taxes - in an effort to stay in the home. The taxes would be the loan's undoing.

The money ran low, and Turano's attempts to contact the lender, Financial Freedom, and refinance or work things out were never answered, she said.

She fell more behind in the taxes, and then legal notices started coming to the home from the lender around 2012 and 2013.

A little scared and embarrassed, she called her son, Rob Turano. He started what amounted to a last-minute legal battle to straighten things out.

It didn't work.

Rob entered the picture too late, as well as a lawyer he hired.

In January 2016, Mercer County Judge Paul Innes lowered his gavel and completed the foreclosure. "You had two years," Rob recalls the judge saying.

Then Fannie Mae started eviction proceedings against Turano, which heated up late last year. As he examined his mother's paperwork, Rob said he found instances of deceit.

A letter to state Sen. Shirley Turner and the state Attorney General's office were answered, but they did not help. They said his mother's situation warranted concern - and maybe an investigation - but they too were powerless to stop the eviction proceedings.

Rob and the lawyer were able to get some delays, but Fannie Mae collected Gloria's house keys on Feb. 5 - from Rob.

"It was a very sad day for me," he said. Gloria now lives with her son, across town.

Rob said he'll never forget what a lawyer told him early on in his fight: "You're not going to lose this house." Just like the television ads.

They did, and now Rob and Gloria want others to know her plight to save others from falling into the same trap.

Gloria said she hasn't told many people she lost her home. But she's ready now, saying, "If it can do something for someone else, if nothing at all."

THE REVERSE MORTGAGE

Reverse mortgages are loans eligible to homeowners over the age of 62. It's a "reverse" loan because the loan does not have to be paid back while the homeowner is alive and in the house - and taxes and insurance are up to date.

Lenders typically get their money back when the homeowner sells the house, or dies. Homeowners can make monthly payments if they want, but the lure for seniors on fixed income is not having to, lenders say.

Gloria's husband died in 1981, and by 2004, money was getting tight. Property taxes kept rising, but Social Security was not keeping up the same pace, she said.

A friend in Pemberton told her she'd taken a reverse mortgage, and gave Gloria the number for Financial Freedom. After calling it, a vigorous young salesman was promptly at her door. She made him blueberry muffins.

If the money runs out, could she get more? What happens then?

Gloria said the man had perfect answers to all her questions. If she needed more money, they'd refinance the deal because her house would "only go up in value," the man said. The deal was done in about 6 hours, Gloria said.

Due to their complexity, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development requires reverse mortgages require borrowers to be "counseled" before they sign the deal. Gloria said she was counseled over the phone.

Gloria's house was worth about $300,000 in 2004, she recalled, and her reverse mortgage was for about $180,000. She got $104,000 after Financial Freedom paid off an existing $60,000 line of credit she had, plus some other smaller debts.

Rob had no idea. "I didn't tell him anything," she said.

MONEY RUNS OUT

The Turanos put much of the blame on Gloria's situation on the reverse mortgage, which experts say can be tricky - and some say an icky business.

They acknowledge Gloria should have reacted quicker and told someone, but she lived alone and for years had taken care of herself, Rob said.

Everything was fine until about 2007, when the loan funds were running low, but Gloria was unable to reach anyone at Financial Freedom, she said.

Financial Freedom, a subsidiary of OneWest Bank/CIT, did not return a message seeking comment on Gloria's foreclosure. Fannie Mae also did not respond to a request for comment.

Her 2004 salesman told her he'd "always be there for her," she recalls. "I never heard from him again," Gloria said.

She says she hung in there for several more years, but then had to stop making tax payments to get by. "The taxes just kept going up and I did not have the money," Gloria said.

Gloria knew reverse mortgage rules state that taxes on properties must be kept current.

Then, several years ago, as Rob got involved, Financial Freedom apparently started paying down her property tax bills.

But they were also foreclosing - because they were paying the taxes, Rob believes, but he is not totally sure that was the foreclosure reason. The reverse loan balance had ballooned to over $300,000, Rob said.

Reverse mortgage foreclosures are rare, and evictions rarer, experts say.

Mark Kriegel, the lawyer Rob hired to try and save the house, said unpaid property taxes are vulnerable to public auction, which would then add a lien on the property - which lenders do not like.

Rob has since examined his mother's stack of paperwork, and from his calls and correspondence in trying to untangle the loan, he said he's found a case of shady lending to a senior and instance of fraud.

"I think she was just taken advantage of," Rob said. "In 2004, I think they saw a 77-year-old woman and thought, 'Well how much longer does she have on the planet?' "

Again, Gloria did not tell initially tell her son about the notices that started coming to the house because she knew he was having career issues at the time, she said.

But Rob said he found foreclosure notices were for a time being sent to Vernon, in Sussex County, and he found a document that states his mother "met with a certain lawyer early in the process, around 2013."

The meeting never happened, and Rob said he never got an explanation for the wrong address.
He started making calls to lawyers that focus on senior law, and other agencies. "This is fraud," people would tell him.

None of it mattered to the Superior Court of New Jersey, though.

Kriegel said he wished he was involved sooner.

"It's very unfortunate," he said. Reverse mortgages can be confusing, and the companies hedge on borrowers dying,  he said. "It's a morbid assumption and it does not work out for every borrower."
The silver lining is that Gloria Turano, even though she lost her home, outlasted the loan by living so long, Kriegel said. It's likely not what the lender expected.

Rob implored anyone considering a reverse mortgage to consult a lawyer, and make sure your family knows all about it.

THE COMPANIES

In 2011, three major reverse mortgage providers Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Financial Freedom, stopped offering reverse mortgages. Together, the were half of the reverse business at the time.

Wells Fargo cited falling home values and challenges in assessing the homeowner's ability to keep up with taxes and insurance obligations as the reason, Bankrate.com reported.

As for Financial Freedom, it was once part of failed bank IndyMac, which was taken over by the government in 2008.

In 2009, Steven Mnuchin led an investors group to buy the bank's remains - including subsidiary Financial Freedom - and renamed it OneWest. He is now President Donald Trump's Secretary of the Treasury.

This angered Turano, who started studying OneWest and Mnuchin.

Rob found, as Bloomberg News reported, that after Mnuchin sold OneWest Bank last year, HUD opened an investigation into foreclosure practices at subsidiary Financial Freedom.

And new owner CIT found more than $230 million in missing money, Bloomberg reported. Financial Freedom, as of December, 2016, had foreclosed on 16,220 loans - about 39 percent of the country's reverse-mortgage foreclosures, the site reported.

Combined with the way his mother was ignored, Rob said, and then finding out about the investigation and Mnuchin's ascension to government leader was too much to Rob.

He watched Mnuchin's confirmation hearings.

"I was taken by the manner in which he portrayed having to foreclose on homeowners as a tough job that he didn't seem to want to do; 'cleaning up the mess' I think he called it," Rob said of Mnuchin.

On the weekend of Donald Trump's inauguration celebrations, an estate sale company the Turanos hired held an open house at the Turano home, where workers had put price tags on nearly everything Gloria Turano owned, from her furniture to paperback books, and the fur coat she once cherished.

"The stark contrast of this weekend for us is this: as billionaire appointments and their friends descend on Washington to celebrate their victory, people will traipse through our family home buying - at a discount - my family's 65 years of life," Rob said then.

A FINAL INDIGNITY

Fannie Mae initially said Gloria had until the end of this month to leave the home, but then started offering her cash to leave early.

"First it was $5,000, then $2,000," Rob said. Gloria left on her own, without any rush money to exit early.

"I'm just so upset at the way she, and we, we're treated throughout this," Rob said.

The home on Skillman Avenue - where her husband loved to cook on a special indoor charcoal grill he installed, where she cleaned the "pecky cypress" walls by hand with a special solution and where the family loved to gather in the long, skinny backyard - sits empty, awaiting sale to a new owner.

Gloria Turano is healthy as one can expect at 90, save for some minor back problems, Rob says. And she has not lost her cooking skills, a bright spot for mother and son as she settles into her new digs with Rob.

"At least I'll get gnocchi out of it," Rob said as Gloria chuckled.

Full Article & Source:
90-year-old woman foreclosed, evicted from home of over 60 years

Bergen OKs aid for needy seniors facing foreclosure

HACKENSACK — The Bergen County Board of Freeholders on Wednesday approved $20,000 in funding for legal assistance for low-income seniors facing foreclosure on their homes.

The new program builds on a counseling service that the county has provided for more than a decade to homeowners older than 62 who are interested in a reverse mortgage.

It will assist those homeowners in cases where they are later unable to pay taxes or homeowners insurance after the reverse mortgage money has dried up.

"As we’ve been doing this more and more, some of these people are really in that financial crisis," said Lorraine Joewono, director of county senior services. "Even with a reverse mortgage, they’re going to use that money up within a few years."

A reverse mortgage allows a homeowner to draw down the home’s equity value for cash, typically for living expenses. The homeowner can take the money in a lump sum, line of credit or monthly payments and the withdrawals, plus interest, are repaid when the house is sold.

"The addition of legal counseling to our existing Reverse Mortgage Counseling Program will help protect our seniors, and will be another tool in Bergen County’s continuum of services that helps our residents age in place," said Freeholder Vice Chairwoman Tracy Zur.

The program complements multiple county initiatives such as Meals on Wheels, home repair and maintenance programs that aim to help seniors "age in place" and put off entering a nursing home or having to sell their homes and leave the area, said Joewono.

"We know that many of our seniors want to stay in their homes, which is why it’s so important to support and expand our programs that let our residents continue to live independently and comfortably," said Freeholder John A. Felice.

Although borrowers are not required to repay the reverse mortgage until they leave the home, they must still pay all property taxes and homeowner insurance premiums.

The program will help homeowners who fall behind by first trying to negotiate a repayment plan between the homeowner and lender.

If that plan fails or if the lender rejects it, then homeowners can also tap legal services during the foreclosure process.

Ron Romano, county reverse mortgage counselor, said that he works with people in their 70s all the way up to centenarians who want to remain in their homes and are interested in a reverse mortgage.
Low-income seniors on average have an annual income of $15,000 or less, Romano said. And a reverse mortgage can help someone with a limited income to continue to live in their home.

The reverse mortgage isn’t for everyone, he said. Often if the homeowner is seeking the money for home upgrades or repairs, he can direct them to other county or state assistance programs.

Over the past decade the program has assisted 2,000 county Bergen County homeowners.

Until 2014, 85 percent to 95 percent of those who sought reverse mortgage counseling eventually obtained the mortgage.

But Romano said that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development instituted more stringent requirements for the loans last year, and the portion of those who get counseling on the mortgages and then obtain them has dropped to about 70 percent.

Romano said that the county program is the only HUD-certified face-to-face counseling service focused on reverse mortgages in New Jersey, Joewono said.

The $20,000 approved Wednesday will pay up to $900 per client through Northeast New Jersey Legal Services.

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Bergen OKs aid for needy seniors facing foreclosure

Press readers aid man impoverished during guardianship

TOMS RIVER — Ken Schmidt, who won an uphill battle last month to regain the legal rights he lost when he suffered a brain injury in a fall two years ago, is starting the new year on a happier note, thanks in part to the generosity of Asbury Park Press readers.

The 75-year-old Toms River resident finally was able to extricate himself from the confines of a court-ordered guardianship on Dec. 16, only to find his old life in disarray.

While under the protection of the state Public Guardian, who was responsible for making medical and financial decisions on Schmidt’s behalf, his savings were wiped out, most of his furniture and other belongings were disposed of, and his townhouse wound up in foreclosure.

His home wasn’t even habitable when the guardianship was terminated because all the utilities had been shut off for nonpayment during his absence. Helen C. Dodick, the acting Public Guardian, told the Press last month that her agency is constrained by the limits of a ward’s assets, if any exist, and often can’t pay off all of the person’s debts.

Over the past few weeks, however, the kindness of strangers has given Schmidt’s spirits a boost.

So far, more than a dozen people who read about Schmidt’s predicament in the Press have contributed more than $700 to help him out, in addition to donating a sofa, new dishes and other household items to replace the possessions Schmidt lost.

“I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart, and God bless you,” Schmidt said.

The Office of the Public Guardian has stepped up, too. The agency’s attorney, Suzanne Dykes, arranged to have Schmidt’s utilities restored, and has persuaded Schmidt’s bank not to pursue the foreclosure, he said. Schmidt paid off his mortgage years ago, but the reverse mortgage he obtained in 2005 gave the bank the right to foreclose if he stopped living in the home.

Full Article & Source:
Press readers aid man impoverished during guardianship

See Also:
NJ guardian laws leave Toms River man fighting to regain freedom

NJ Man Free of Guardianship He Said He No Longer Needs!

Columbus Nursing Home Operator Arrested — Nooner Has History Of Arrests, Tax Evasion

A Saltillo man who operates an assisted living facility in Columbus was arrested Thurs., July 18.
Dennis “Denny” Nooner Jr, of 198 Knight Drive, Saltillo, was arrested by deputies with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and charged with felony false pretense and driving with a suspended license. According to http://homeplacecolumbusms.com, Nooner is listed as the owner of the assisted living facility, Home Place, located at 208 Yorkville Road E. in Columbus.

The website for Secretary of State Delbert Hoseman shows Nooner as an officer for Columbus Home Place and Dogwood Home Place Assisted Living, LLC in Saltillo. Home Place in Columbus is listed as a dissolved LLC and Dogwood Home Place is listed as intent to dissolve the limited liability corporation.

 According to a spokesperson for the LCSO, Nooner was arrested for writing a fraudulent check in 2011 for $6,000. The check was written to Merchants Foodservice on an account at Renasant Bank.
Nooner was indicted November 1, 2012, by the Lowndes County Grand Jury for false pretense. Nooner was arrested in Lee County and extradited to Columbus where was booked into the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center. Nooner, 52, was released on a $5,000 bond.

Full Article and Source:
Columbus Nursing Home Operator Arrested — Nooner Has History Of Arrests, Tax Evasion

8th Circuit Court of appeals threatens Minneapolis lawyer with sanctions

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals took the unusual step on Monday of threatening to impose its own sanctions on a Minneapolis foreclosure attorney for continuing to file appeals, using legal arguments that have been repeatedly rejected by the district court in Minnesota as well as the federal appeals court.

Attorney William B. Butler already faces possible discipline from the federal district court in Minnesota and the Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board, both of which are currently conducting investigations of him. Butler's problems were described in the Star Tribune last Thursday.

It is the third time in five days that the appeals panel has upheld the dismissal of a Butler lawsuit. On Thursday and Friday it issued separate opinions, upholding dismissals of his suits by Minnesota District Court judges.

On Monday, a three-judge appeals court panel issued its latest ruling, upholding a decision by U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, who dismissed a case filed by attorney Butler last August. The appeals panel called Butler's continued rehashing of arguments "troubling," citing three similar Minnesota cases in which his arguments were rejected.

"HIs deliberate attemp to ignore these cases suggests that he has the intention of deceiving or misleading the court into ruling in his favor," the panel said in Monday's decision. "At the very least, it suggests he lacks a nonfrivolous basis for appeal. Such conduct may provide a basis for this court to impose its own sanctions in the future."

The appeals court quoted liberally from Schiltz's harsh criticism of Butler for using the "show me the note argument" that the foreclosing entity no longer possesses the original foreclosure borrowing note, making the foreclosure invalid. In his August ruling, Schiltz imposed sanctions totalling $79,766. Butler has said he will not pay the sanctions by local federal judges, insisting his position is correct, the courts are wrong and he will eventually prevail. The sanctions now total $323,307, according to Star Tribune calculations.

Full Article and Source:
8th Circuit Court of appeals threatens Minneapolis lawyer with sanctions

Elder Care Homes Ensnared By Foreclosure Crisis In California

This article was made possible with support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Richard Miller, 77

 Richard Miller had been living in his second-floor San Francisco apartment for 23 years when, one day in 2010, he fell down the stairs. His doctor recommended he move into a residential care facility for the elderly, where residents have meals provided and, if needed, get help with dressing, eating and bathing. Miller wasn’t eager to make the move, and three years later, he has had plenty of reasons to regret it.

Miller, who is now 77, suffers from several health problems. He has sleep apnea and congestive heart failure, which causes him to get winded easily and pause every 10 or so steps to catch his breath. A large man with a thick swatch of white hair and a booming tenor voice, he calls his cane a "kind of a security blanket" because he's had two knee operations, and one of his legs sometimes gives out.

Miller’s fall and subsequent move led him to two different elder care facilities -- both of which, he discovered later, were in foreclosure. He now lives in a third facility called Morning Glory Care Home, a four-bedroom elder care house on a cul-de-sac in Vallejo, a city of roughly 117,000 that's 35 minutes northeast of San Francisco. But only a few months after moving in, he noticed some unusual visitors passing through the home. "Two women came through with clipboards and were kind of looking around,” he said. "When you're 76 years old and it's your third place, you get a little bit scared."

His fears turned out to be justified. He asked the home’s administrator about the women and was told they were relatives. But Miller didn’t believe him. As more strangers floated in and out, he felt an uneasy sense of foreboding. "So I Googled the property,” he said, "and was blown away to find that it had been in foreclosure since December 2010."

Most disturbing to Miller was the lack of warning that his home was foreclosed. Despite a law put into force in January 2012 that expressly requires the people operating the homes to inform residents about the change, those in charge did not tell him that Morning Glory was in foreclosure. Nor had he been given any warning about his previous two residences. "The first home was bank-owned and being put up for auction,” he said. "The second one -- there was a notice on the door -- and [the owner] yanked it off so we couldn't see it."

Miller’s experience of moving to three different facilities in just over a year's time -- and the possibility that he’ll have to move to a fourth -- may be extreme. But the elderly having to shuffle from home to home is certainly not a rarity in boom-and-bust California, where about 170,000 individualsuals live in residential care facilities that in some areas face alarming foreclosure rates. A state law requiring owners and administrators of these homes to inform authorities and residents if they miss a mortgage payment seems little more than words on paper. In many cases, the authorities are as much in the dark about a home’s financial troubles as the residents and their families.

The state Department of Social Services only has the personnel to check up on 30 percent of these homes each year, according to the California Health and Human Services Agency. Those serving as long-term care ombudsmen, who visit the homes regularly, are many times similarly uninformed about a home's status change.

"We often don't know that a place is closed until we knock on the door," said John Lord, a long-term care ombudsman in Vallejo.

When it comes to health and quality of life, experts are inclined to agree that moving often and abruptly is a bad idea for the elderly, especially for those who are frail or suffering from conditions such as dementia. "The trauma for them becomes being in a new setting where nothing is familiar, and they don't know how to adjust," said Ruth Gay, director of public policy and advocacy for the Alzheimer's Association of Northern California and Nevada. "It manifests in things like agitation, aggression, fear, withdrawal, and people start to decline ... They are at risk for falling, not eating well, and all of those things can be a vicious cycle downward."

Full Article and Source:
Elder Care Homes Ensnared By Foreclosure Crisis In California