More Than a Roof and Four Walls

“Mrs. H” came to the Catholic Legal Assistance Ministry (CLAM) for help when the family home where she had lived with her mother was slated to be sold at a mortgage foreclosure sale after her mother passed.

After the passing of her mother, Mrs. H discovered that the home’s mortgage had a $83,000 loan balance in default. CLAM attorneys had no success with the lender in negotiating a loan modification or a discounted payoff. The mortgage company instructed the loan trustee to publish notice of a mortgage foreclosure sale.

A home appraisal website appraised the market value of the home at $35,000. The night before the sale, CLAM staff discovered from the foreclosure trustee website that the mortgage note holder’s opening bid at the sale would be only $3,000.

We called Mrs. H, who had some modest retirement savings to bid, to let her know about this opportunity. We then met her at the auction on the court house steps, and when the loan holder bid $3,000, Mrs. H bid $3,001. There were no other bids and our client was given a Trustees deed to the home loan-free.

Our client could not have imagined that she would be able to get her home back, and was incredibly grateful that CLAM attorneys investigated and helped her purchase the house. Now she is happily living there, owning the house debt-free where she imagined herself growing old and raising her own family.