Homeowner Faces City Demolition Order As She Attempts To Rescue Earlier-Vacated Home Now In Legal Limbo As Lender Fails To Hold Foreclosure Sale

In Mansfield, Ohio, the Mansfield News Journal reports:

• Having recently learned she still owns the house she thought was lost to foreclosure last year, Tina Powell wants to move back in at 152 W. First St. The city, however, placed a demolition order on the home this fall. Powell insists she's the victim of a big mix-up. She and her husband bought the house in 2001, and he died there in 2006. She says she left their home behind in June 2008, believing her mortgage company had taken possession of it.

• "I didn't have the money for an attorney. I didn't inquire. I just obeyed," Powell said. But then the mortgage company went defunct. And her name remained on the deed. Not knowing those crucial facts, she also later discovered she'd missed out on opportunities to fight demolition. "I didn't know I still owned the place. I would never had left, if I would have known," she said.

• Over the course of the city's condemnation process, notifications were sent out with her name on them -- but to a Columbus address that apparently belonged to the mortgage firm, she said.

For the story, see Condemned house at issue in Mansfield. legal limbo