An inspirational fight against foreclosure

Posted on January 2nd, 2008 by saman

Numbers of homeowners in Beachwood, Ohio left and abandon their houses in the crisis of foreclosure, as others across the nation. Story of Richard Davet is different.

Richard and Lynn, a loving family lived for nearly 20 years in a six-bedroom house in the Cleveland suburb. In 1996, foreclosure law stroked him. Instead of bowing down to the threat of foreclosure and hand over the home-keys, he studied the law books. With lots of paper work sent toward the court, Mr. Davet pushed off foreclosure procedure for a long period of 11 years, until the January 07, when a county sheriff’s office denied all his paper work and turned out the couple and replaced the locks. Richard and Lynn did not pay any mortgage for these last 11 years.

Mr. Davet, who is now 63 years old is depressed and sad. For the family, the house was a part of the life. They tried to put their sorrows in words, “ For us it was heaven on earth, a good investment and a very fine property. Our four beloved, Scottish terriers are buried there. They took it away from our hand like a toy.”

This case is in light because it has taken the longest time to fight in the court for residential foreclosure of its kind. It is like a history in the office of Cuyahoga county, which is the center of the foreclosure crisis now spreading in Ohio and all over the country. Foreclosure procedures are usually routine, in general it takes several months to a few years to evict the homeowner out of the house. Companies hand over the task to law firms, which are now known as foreclosure-mill law firms. And most of the times foreclosure cases are unchallenged.

Now, many borrowers are taking the situation in their hand to fight back. They file for bankruptcy on the closing time of the day for the sale of the property, and delay the foreclosure law. Some of them try to avoid to answer the door when the petitioner come with a notice of foreclosure. They ask lawyers to help them to get more time by filing a case that moves slowly, by paying a few hundred dollars.

But there are not many as Mr. Davet, who is still fighting and not giving up. Although he is out of his beloved house of 1940, he is still on the work to get back his house with all damages. He is taking support of the most high lighted legal argument that a lending institution or a bank can file a foreclosure procedure only if it is its property and it owns the mortgage and property rights.

“He is right. He believes that the financial institution is wrong and done him damage. He is worth the credit”, are reflections of Daniel Kalk, who among different lawyers represented Mr. Richard in the case. “The court is not clear as it uses the old arguments of Mr. Davet himself which he argued some 10 years ago.”