Woman
can keep house, judge says
A judge sides with the woman,
citing her cancer battle, in a foreclosure over unpaid homeowners association
dues |
By ROBERT FARLEY
© St. Petersburg Times, published
April 13, 2001
CLEARWATER -- Linda Hammer can keep her
home.
That was the ruling on Thursday afternoon
from a county judge weighing the foreclosure sale of Robert and Linda Hammer's
$235,000 East Lake home because they owed several hundred dollars in homeowners
association dues.
Mrs. Hammer, who said she fell behind in
paying the dues while she was battling colon cancer, was jubilant and tearful
after the decision was announced. She hugged her three grown children and
grandchild, as well as several neighbors and friends who had come to show
support.
"I'm ecstatic," Mrs. Hammer said outside
the courtroom. "I'm relieved and so pleased. It's a wonderful victory."
Mrs. Hammer, 58, said she is "ready, willing
and able" to pay nearly $3,000 she owes to the Eagle Trace at Boot Ranch
Homeowners Association to square her account. Of that, about $650 is delinquent
association dues. The rest is attorney's fees and court costs related to
the association's foreclosure action.
Last March, the homeowners association
filed a foreclosure suit to recoup the unpaid fees by taking her house.
In February, the property was sold at auction to the highest bidders, Mark
Veltre and Stephen Maisel. Veltre and Maisel paid $36,100 for the property,
but also had to assume the $125,000 outstanding mortgage.
In the hearing on Thursday, licensed appraiser
Jerry Fiala testified that the market value of the home on Eagle Trace
Boulevard is $235,000.
The Hammers' attorney, Colin Vause, argued
the sale ought to be overturned, in part, because the purchase price was
so far below market value.
Vause also argued that Mrs. Hammer had
bigger problems on her mind than the outstanding association fees and did
not understand many of the notices sent to her.
Robert Hammer is a long-haul truck driver
and was out of town for long periods at a stretch, leaving his wife to
handle the finances. He was not at Thursday's hearing because he was returning
from a haul to California.
Mrs. Hammer learned last October that she
had colon cancer. She had surgery the following month, followed by six
months of chemotherapy.
Asked to describe her mental capacity at
that time, Mrs. Hammer said, "absolute turmoil. I was dying and I was absolutely
petrified
with what was going on."
Her finances became a mess.
"Everything got behind because I couldn't
focus on it," she said.
In addition to her homeowners association
dues, the Hammers fell behind on mortgage payments. Mrs. Hammer said she
took $9,870 from retirement savings to get current on her mortgage. She
figured that was the end of the foreclosure threat.
Mrs. Hammer said she understood the homeowners
association had filed a lien against her property, but she never thought
that lien could lead to a foreclosure sale.
She noted that in response to a letter
from the association's attorney, Michael Brudny, she made two $100 payments
toward her delinquent dues and started again to pay her $35-per-month dues.
Gary Maisel, the attorney for Veltre and
Stephen Maisel, asked a series of questions to show that Mrs. Hammer was
informed repeatedly of the consequences of not paying her association dues,
and that a foreclosure against her was proceeding.
Mrs. Hammer said she didn't understand
some of the notices sent to her.
Mrs. Hammer said chemotherapy treatment
"causes you to lose your memory. They have an in-joke, they call it chemo-brain.
. . . You go through a period, you're exhausted and you just can't function."
In his closing, Vause argued that "everything
is on the line" for the Hammers, whereas, for Veltre and Stephen Maisel,
"their only interest in this case is profit."
Gary Maisel argued the Hammers ignored
numerous notices about the impending foreclosure and failed to completely
pay up on the association dues.
"The defendant can't play ostrich, stick
their head in the sand and come back and ask for relief," Maisel argued.
"I understand it's a harsh result, but
that's the law," Gary Maisel said.
After the hearing, Veltre and Stephen Maisel
declined to comment.
Senior County Judge Stephen Rushing determined
Linda Hammer's failure to make payments was "excusable because so many
things were going on in her life."
He said he based his decision on a combination
of factors including Linda Hammer's confusion about the foreclosure action
and the wide disparity between the value of the house and what the bidders
paid. He also noted that she made a number of payments during the period
when the foreclosure action was proceeding.
"Hopefully," Rushing said, "this is a valuable
lesson to everyone here about the importance of court proceedings."
Outside the courtroom, Brudny defended
the homeowners association's decision to move forward with foreclosure.
"There was plenty of notice from our standpoint,"
he said.
But Brudny said the association board is
glad to see the Hammers will retain their home, and that the association
will get paid.
"It was nothing personal," Brudny said.
As for the $3,000 the association is due,
he said, "I'm sure it'll be paid promptly."
Mrs. Hammer said she hopes her case will
lead to changes in the way homeowners associations pursue collections.
"I would like to see homeowners association
bylaws changed so they can't foreclose on someone's home," Mrs. Hammer
said.
Mrs. Hammer said one of the positives that
emerged from the ordeal is the number of neighbors who came to her defense
and lambasted the association for foreclosing on her home without making
the neighborly effort of finding out why she wasn't paying.
"I had no idea we had so many nice neighbors,"
Mrs. Hammer said. |