Legal Aid To File Predatory Lending, Fraud Suit On Behalf Of Foreclosed California Homeowner In Attempt To Prevent Loss Of Family Home

In Chico, California, the Chico Enterprise Record reports:

• A woman facing eviction from the home her parents left her may be able to remain there at least temporarily. Emily Fisher, a staff attorney with Legal Services of Northern California [...] said she and other lawyers are working to enable Jan Poythress to stay in her house and, they hope, to get it back.

• Poythress said her problems started after she ran up a large credit-card debt and then allowed a telemarketer to persuade her to take a loan that would pay off what she owed. Poythress is disabled and lives on a small income from Social Security.(1) Because she couldn't pay off the loan, her house was foreclosed upon.

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• Fisher said a petition was filed in court in Chico Tuesday asking that the eviction be "stayed until some of these issues can be worked out." She said it's hoped a judge will cancel the eviction and allow a new trial to be held over whether Poythress ought to be evicted. [...] "We are planning to file an affirmative complaint on the predatory lending issues and the fraud that appears to have happened," she said.

For more, see Lawyers hope to halt woman's eviction.

For an earlier report describing how the homeowner was allegedly screwed over by the loan originator, see On the edge: Chico woman faces loss of home, uncertain future.

For other posts on homeowners using state & federal law to try and undo bad mortgage loans, Go Here, Go Here, and Go Here.

(1) Reportedly, Fisher said Poythress has an income of around $900 a month in disability payments, yet the loan documents state her income as $4,000 a month and claim that she was able to repay $2,500 a month on the loan. This wasn't a case where a borrower got greedy and tried to buy more than she could afford, Fisher said. Rather, Poythress was in a vulnerable position and was taken advantage of. UndoMortgageLoans TILAdelta