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kalikshama -> RE: Top Foreclosure Firm’s Homeless-Themed Halloween Party Pictures Spark Controversy (11/4/2011 7:08:29 PM)
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Cast-Iron Gates and Chicken Wire Surround Her House to Avoid Eviction An 82-year-old Bedford-Stuyvesant great grandmother fights to keep her home of 44 years, after she entrusted it to predatory lenders
[image]http://cdn.front.moveon.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/MaryWard-1-2-MAIN.jpg[/image]
...In 1995, Ms. Ward became the victim of a predatory lending scam after she borrowed $82,000 against her Bed-Stuy town home. She needed money fast, to continue paying her lawyers who were fighting on Ms. Ward's behalf for custody of her great granddaughter.
The lending company, Delta Funding, offered her the loan within 24 hours, including $10,000 in cash says Ms. Ward, and promised her the money within three days. The title company that secured the loan, closed on the deal without her signature and was supposed to sign over to her the check. But after three weeks of no check and non-returned phone calls by neither Delta or the owners of the title company, Ms. Ward began to get suspicious.
She started staking out their offices, and was just about to take legal action, she said, when the title company finally called.
“They said, ‘Well, Ms. Ward. We got your money; you’re gonna get you your baby. Just sign these papers,’” she said. “I was just so happy that I was gonna get the $10,000. When I got through signing those papers, he said, 'Here’s your check.' I looked at the check, and I almost passed out.”
The check they cut her was for $1,467.51.
They kept the remaining $8,500 as their fee, she said. The next day, Ward marched down to the Kings County District Attorney’s office at 210 Joralemon Street in Downtown Brooklyn, who then referred her to Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).
According to Ms. Ward, HPD immediately sent out letters to all involved parties and had the loan rescinded within 24 hours.
“I was so relieved, because I didn’t want all that trouble,” said Ms. Ward. “I just wanted my great grandbaby back. She was adopted illegally, you know, and I wanted her back.”
However, wheels were already in motion by Delta and Greenpoint Savings Bank—her mortgage provider—for the loan against Ms. Ward’s home. It was too late, she learned weeks later.
So she took another $10,000 and her case to a pro-bono civil rights attorney firm. The lawyer representing her offered to escrow her money until the case was settled. Instead, the lawyer spent her check—for which she was reportedly convicted and later did jail time.
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