Keeping a Home
When lenders refuse to listen.

LAFLA attorney, Tai Glenn was instrumental in aiding client Mrs. H keep her home of 29 years after it was wrongfully sold. While Mrs. H always believed that she would keep the house, Ms. Glenn knew it would be a difficult battle.

In 1970, Mrs. H arranged to buy a modest house in South Central Los Angeles through a federal housing program. But when her HUD-insured and -supplemented mortgage was transferred from one loan company to another, there were discrepancies regarding payments. Mrs. H thought she had made her last payment in early 1998, but the lender insisted that she still owed $900 and was in danger of default.

Mrs. H kept meticulous records of her calls to HUD and the lenders. HUD even wrote the mortgage company, stating that she owed nothing or very little and they should discharge the matter. Unresponsive, the lender foreclosed and sold the property. After receiving a three-day eviction notice, Mrs. H turned to the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

Ms. Glenn, seeking to keep Mrs. H in her house while "we fought the foreclosure," called a newspaper. With media attention focused on their actions, the mortgage company realized that Mrs. H had a strong case and "it was going to look cold-hearted and greedy," says Ms. Glenn, noting that the lender had not followed federal foreclosure laws for this kind of housing program. The lender agreed to settle, bought the house back and restored it to Mrs. H.

"I knew I was right," says Mrs. H. "And we were able to prove it," adds Ms. Glenn.

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