Article Courtesy of The Orlando
Sentinel
By Jeff Weiner
Published
May 29, 2015
A circuit judge in Orange County last month put a
home owned by Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill on the auction
block, finding that she owed more than $160,000 in unpaid mortgage,
taxes and interest, records show.
But Hill on Tuesday said that ruling
resulted from a mix-up. Hill said she has been making
payments on the house for the past year and has come to
terms with her mortgage provider that were supposed to
keep it out of foreclosure.
Attorneys representing a mortgage loan trust filed for
foreclosure against Hill in October 2012, alleging that
she had stopped making payments that April on the
five-bedroom, three-bath 2,400-square-foot house on
Baywood Avenue, in Orange County.
Hill purchased the home in 1997. Her
loan was originally for $86,550, but had been modified
several times.
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Commissioner Regina Hill says house shouldn't
have been foreclosed, put up for auction.
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Last month, after a non-jury trial that Hill did not
attend, a judge ruled in the trust's favor and found that Hill owed
$134,000 in principal on the mortgage, plus thousands more in taxes,
interest and fees.
The total tally was $164,081.57. If unpaid, the judge ordered that the
home go up for auction online Aug. 26.
This case underscores the fact that submitting a mortgage modification
application does not stay the foreclosure action, unless of course, the
bank specifically consents that its foreclosure action is suspended and
stayed during the processing of the mortgage modification application.
In an interview, Hill said the case "shouldn't have gone to court." She
said she has been working with her bank, Wells Fargo, to modify her
mortgage, and the foreclosure action was supposed to have been
"suspended."
"I've been paying on it for a whole year, actually," Hill said.
The attorney of record for the plaintiff in Hill's foreclosure case
could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Hill is the second local politician to suffer a foreclosure-court defeat
recently.
Orange County Commissioner Victoria Siplin's Holden Heights condominium
is set for auction May 22. Public records showed Siplin hadn't paid the
mortgage since 2008, and had never paid property taxes on the
three-bedroom condo.
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