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PART
1 of 3: Posted on Mon, Nov. 10, 2008
Hurst man down on his
luck, and soon out of his house
By ANDREA JARES
ajares@star-telegram.com
For Frank Hartman, like many Americans, one turn of bad luck cascaded
into a chain of events
that
could end in foreclosure.
Four years after taking out an adjustable-rate home equity
loan, the 67-year-old Hurst man no longer lives in his
split-level home of 11 years. The water has been shut off, the
appliances and furniture have been removed and the lender is
threatening foreclosure, perhaps as soon as Dec. 2.
The payments had gotten so steep that he sometimes had to
decide between paying his mortgage and paying for medicine to
treat his Parkinson’s disease and prostate cancer. He finally
stopped paying the mortgage in June 2007.
He has since tried refinancing, a short-sale of the house,
court action, consumer help groups and lawyers, to no avail.
"I feel depressed," Hartman said during a recent
trip back to his home. "I worked hard all my life for
this."
Neighbor Lenny Lopez says Hartman is facing more than his
share of hardship.
"He’s fighting for his life, and he’s fighting for
the house," Lopez said.
Declining health
Hartman’s problems started when the shaking from
Parkinson’s disease forced him to retire from his job driving
an 18-wheeler.
After he left his job, he racked up debt. Then he saw an ad
for a company that would give him a $20,000 loan. He said he
didn’t know that Ameriquest
Mortgage was going to give him an adjustable-rate
mortgage and guarantee the loan with the house that he had owned
for seven years.
"I didn’t know what I was getting into," Hartman
said.
He wanted his payments to be affordable, even with the loan.
"They told me that an ARM mortgage was the best for
me," Hartman wrote in a formal complaint to the Texas
Savings and Mortgage Lending Department.
"They also told me my payments would probably go up in
the future but for now I did not have to worry about them going
up."
The $116,000 mortgage started out in November 2004 with a 7.2
percent interest rate, according to the mortgage paperwork. It
would change every 6 months starting in December 2006, and it
was capped at 13.2 percent.
Hartman said he was able to make the $787.40 payments at
first. He draws $3,777 a month in Social Security and pension
benefits. But he said that the payments topped $980 and
eventually $1,200.
He said he had to stop paying because the mortgage became
unaffordable. He moved out that summer.
Today he owes more than $113,000 on a house the Tarrant
Appraisal District values at $78,500.
"Hartman said. "They said, 'You’re stuck between
two rocks and a hard nail,’
ARM wrestling
Hartman said he is unable to refinance his loan because he
owes more than the house is worth. He said he was able to get
the loan for so much because his house was initially appraised
for $145,000.
Hartman said he has tried to do a short sale, selling the
home for the amount owed on the mortgage. He said the best offer
he received was $69,000, but the mortgage company turned it
down.
He contacted more
than 20 lawyers, foreclosure help groups and government
officials to no avail. He got in touch with the state attorney
general and the Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending. The
attorneys he talked with said he would have to pay more than he
could afford to fight the case.
In late October, a district judge agreed to allow the lender
to foreclose. Court documents show that Hartman did not appear.
Hartman, who had represented himself in the case, said he
understood from a previous letter that the court would call him
to discuss the matter.
He said he waited by the phone for two hours before calling
the court; when he called, he said, he was told that the matter
had been settled.
"What can I do now?" he said.
An empty home
Hartman returned to his home Oct. 31, saddened by the
emptiness.
His furniture and appliances had been taken by a friend he
once tried to help and perhaps a company hired by the lender, he
said. Scattered on the floor were random belongings and
household cleaners. Someone had put locks on the back door and
garage, he said.
A typed note on the sink indicated that the water had been
shut off and drained.
Hartman stood in what used to be his living room.
"There’s nothing here now," he said.
Need help?
Several groups and government agencies offer help for people
facing foreclosure. Here is contact information for agencies set
up to help people facing foreclosure:
Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Fort Worth,
866-889-9347, www.cccsfw.org
Hope Now, 888-995-HOPE (4673), www.hopenow.com
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 800-569-4287, www.hud.gov/foreclosure
Federal Housing Administration, 800-CALL-FHA (225-5342),
www.fha.gov
Housing Opportunities of Fort Worth, 817-923-9192
Tarrant County Housing Partnership, 817-924-5091, www.tchp.net
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, dallasfed.org/ca/foreclosure.cfm
Source: Star-Telegram research
Update
PART 2: Posted on Tue, Dec. 02, 2008
Hurst man with cancer
still fighting today's planned foreclosure of home
By ANDREA JARES
ajares@star-telegram.com
A Hurst man with cancer has filed court
papers trying to stop today’s planned foreclosure of his home.
The home of Frank Hartman, whose plight was featured recently
in the Star-Telegram, is slated for the foreclosure
auction this afternoon. The 67-year-old has been unable to make
the payments on an adjustable-rate home-equity loan he took out
with Ameriquest
Mortgage in 2004. The debt is thousands of dollars
more than the appraised value of the home.
Hartman’s attorneys, Tom
Engle of Bedford and Michael
Brinkley of Fort Worth, filed a motion last week asking the
judge of the 141st District Court to stop the foreclosure. They
are also asking for a new trial. The court clerk said late
Monday afternoon that no response had been filed.
According to the court documents, the reasons for seeking to
stop the foreclosure include that Hartman now has an attorney
and that Ameriquest has already removed property from the house.
The court filings also say that Hartman’s home-equity loan
is unconstitutional under Texas law because it is for more than
80 percent of the home’s value. The loan was for $116,000,
while the Tarrant Appraisal District values the home at $78,500.
Hartman’s attorneys say that the loan fees were also
unlawfully high.
Engle said that Hartman has been "damaged
severely."
"I think Mr. Hartman’s going to be
OK eventually," he said.
Update
PART 3: Posted on Wed, Dec. 03, 2008
Hurst man who has cancer
won't lose his house for now
By ANDREA JARES
ajares@star-telegram.com
A Hurst man fighting foreclosure at the
same time he is fighting cancer may get to keep his house — at
least for now.
The mortgage company pulled Frank Hartman’s home from
Tuesday’s foreclosure auction, said Tom
Engle of Bedford, Hartman’s attorney. The home is
slated for the February auction, but Engle said he does not
think it will face foreclosure again.
Engle and Michael Brinkley of Fort Worth sued last week on Hartman’s behalf,
saying the adjustable-rate home-equity loan that Hartman took
out from Ameriquest Mortgage in 2004
is not legal under the
Texas constitution. The lawyers are asking for a new trial.
Hartman, 67, who has been living with a friend in Plano and
was featured in a Star-Telegram article in November,
said Tuesday that he is moving back into his Hurst home. But it
will take time to get his utilities turned back on, and he said
the furniture he had left in the home is now gone.
"I don’t have a table to light a candle on,"
Hartman said. "I don’t know if I’m going to sleep on
the floor or not."
Engle said mortgage companies have shut off the utilities of
some of his clients and winterized their homes even
before foreclosure.
But Hartman’s case is particularly severe, he said.
Hartman said the stress of possibly losing his home is
exacerbating the symptoms of his Parkinson’s disease and
prostate cancer.
"It’s not right that I’m going through this,"
Hartman said.
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