Foreclosed elderly couple can return home ; Judge lets them back as case proceeds, but they say it’s been damaged
A little more than a month after a lender forced an elderly couple from their home, a judge ruled the two are allowed back in while the foreclosure case continues.
They got a reverse mortgage - a loan that the couple wouldn't have to pay back until they died, moved away or violated the contract. After they died, the lender could access the home's value.
Thompson and Smith never missed insurance payments, never missed tax payments, never missed utility payments. But the lender claimed the couple moved, nullifying the deal and prompting the foreclosure.
Thompson, Smith and their neighbors say that's not true. Records show the couple's utility bills never dipped significantly.
Still,
The couple's story was told last month in
Thompson and Smith are both 78.
She is a diabetic. She survived breast cancer. She suffers from arthritis. She can barely read, and Thompson says she's barely functioning.
He can hardly hear, can't read and has regular doctor appointments.
One day, Thompson returned home from a pain-management appointment and found most of what he owned on the lawn. The lender emptied everything out. Some things, including two or three TVs, were missing.
Earlier this month, Circuit Judge
The house, Thompson's daughter said, is not the same as when the couple left.
The front door was locked. The back door wasn't.
"People have been living in there and breaking things," said Thompson's daughter,
The refrigerator, stove, and washing machine are gone, she said.
It looks like someone tried to steal the water heater.
The ceiling and walls have suffered water damage.
A plumber had to fix the pipes.
"My dad is still so stressed out," Clark said. "They threw out his stuff. They broke up his couches. He had to buy a refrigerator, a washing machine and everything. It's like he just got an empty house. ... Other than that, it's a blessing he's back in there."
She said they're taking pictures.
When the lender did the forcible move, she said, it had an obligation to secure the property.
The lawsuit could take several years, she said.
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