SAU Assistance Helps Couple Keep Their Home

Bay Area’s Senior Advocacy Unit (SAU) recently assisted “Jack” and “Martha”, an elderly couple who have owned their home for seventeen years.  Jack has had several strokes and is in bad health.  In 2006, the couple took out an affordable, likely predatory, mortgage on their home.  They struggled to make their monthly payments and had to use all their savings to stay current on the loan.  A few years later, their savings ran out and the lender filed a foreclosure action against them.  Believing that they could not save their house, they moved into an apartment.  In late 2009, they applied to Bay Area for help.  Their SAU attorney checked into the court docket and discovered that no action had been taken on the case for some time and no default had been entered against the couple, despite their failure to file an answer.  The couple moved back into their home, although the house needed major repairs that they could not afford.  Their attorney assisted them in responding to the original foreclosure complaint and investigated defenses to the loan transaction through requests to the lender for documents.  SAU helped Jack and Martha apply for a loan modification.  The couple were approved for a modification that would reduce the amortizing portion of the loan by $100,000, reduce the interest rate to 2% and extend the amortizing period to 40 years.  After consulting with their attorney, Jack and Martha accepted the loan modification.  Soon after, the foreclosure action was dismissed.  With help from the Senior Home Improvement Program at the Centre for Women, the couple were able to make the necessary repairs to their home, including a badly-needed new roof.  Jack and Martha now have a monthly mortgage payment that they can afford and are looking forward to spending the rest of their lives in their longtime home.