Suit Claims Granite State Couple Had Fully Paid For Policy When BofA Forced Them Into Default By Misapplying Loan Payments To Force Placed Insurance

In Manchester, New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports:

• Joel and Roberta Bergquist of Rindge allege it was their mortgage servicer’s failure to credit them with buying their own homeowners’ insurance that unleashed a storm that is still unabated.

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• For nearly two years, the Bergquists say, they’ve been trying to win back control of their lives after Bank of America forced its own property insurance on them, confiscated mortgage payments to cover it, then refused to accept their monthly payments.
  
  The Bergquists, who are in their 60s, say Bank of America’s actions hurt their quilting business, Quilters Treasure, and ruined their ability to get credit. “They’ve destroyed us both personally as well as financially for our own personal names as well as the business,” Roberta Bergquist said in a telephone interview this month.
  
  The bank also defamed them, the Bergquists said in a lawsuit originally filed in Cheshire Superior Court.
  
  Attorney Jason A. Czekalski of Rindge, who represents the Bergquists, said in a telephone interview: “These people did nothing wrong. They were making their payments, they were paying their insurance, they had proof of insurance.”
  
  The bank, based in North Carolina, had the case moved to U.S. District Court in Concord on July 27. Judge Steven J. McAuliffe on Aug. 13 gave the bank until Oct. 1 to file an answer to the complaint.
  
  The Bergquists are seeking up to $635,000 from the bank, which includes a payoff of their mortgages, damages and attorneys fees, according to the bank’s attorneys: Jennifer Turco Beaudet and Thomas J. Pappas of Primmer Piper Eggleston & Cramer’s Manchester office. The parties are discussing a possible resolution, according to a court filing submitted by the bank.

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• According to the Bergquists’ suit, Bank of America’s mortgage servicing unit in March 2011 seized two monthly payments the Bergquists made toward principal and interest on their primary mortgage for 47 Monadnock Road and placed its own homeowners insurance on the property retroactively. That action violated the Bergquists’ mortgage with the bank, the suit asserted.

For more, see Rindge couple face off with BOA over mortgage (Like the wrath of nature which can wreak havoc in the form of hurricane, tornado or flood, the mortgage and foreclosure crisis has his American families in many forms).

Real Estate Investor Files Suit To Derail Demolition Of Two Homes Scheduled For Date With City Wrecking Ball

In Beaumont, Texas, The Southeast Texas Record reports:

• Diamantis Investments has filed a petition and application for temporary restraining order against the city of Beaumont, seeking to stop the slated demolishment of two properties. The injunction request was filed Aug. 16 in Jefferson County District Court.
  
  According to the petition, Diamantis Investments owns two homes in Beaumont located at 1785 Elgie St. and 3950 Congress St., both of which have been declared to be dilapidated structures and scheduled to be demolished by the city.
  
  In its petition, Diamantis Investments argues that if the homes are demolished, the plaintiff will lose almost all the investment in the properties, causing the plaintiff to suffer immediate and irreparable loss.
  
  Diamantis Investments is asking the court to enjoin the city following an injunction hearing. In addition to the injunction, Diamantis Investments is seeking court costs.
  

Source: Diamantis Investments seeks TRO to stop city from demolishing Beaumont homes.

Vacant Home In Foreclosure Since 2008 Likely Cause Of Neighborhood Cockroach Invasion; City Slates Date With Wrecking Ball, But Must 1st Purge Pests

In Hammond, Indiana, The Times of Northwest Indiana reports:

• An emergency demolition order was issued Thursday for an empty East Hammond house that neighbors claim is the nexus of an expanding cockroach infestation.
  
  Residents of the 900 block of Eaton Street sought assistance from the Board of Public Works and Safety last week in combating the insect invasion, which they said was spreading to adjacent streets in all directions.
  
  Before the 91-year-old building can be torn down, the roaches must first be killed, said Kelly Kearney, code enforcement commissioner, or they would immediately occupy neighboring properties.
  
  "Everything in there is infested," Kearney said. "There's a massive, massive amount of roaches." Residents said the insects first appeared in June after the owner and a tenant moved out, leaving behind mounds of debris and a dead dog in the basement.
  
  Pest control professionals estimated at one to three weeks could be needed to exterminate all the roaches, Building Commissioner Kurt Koch said.

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• Owner Carl Harris told the works board Thursday he would like to get his property back but doesn't have the money to catch up with his mortgage on the house, which has been in foreclosure since 2008.

For more, see Hammond orders demolition of cockroach-infested house.

City To Tenants: 'Everybody Out!' Sewage Leak/Backup Likely Cause For 36-Unit Apartment Building Shutdown; Renter Return Possible Upon Landlord Fix

In Hopewell, Virginia, The Progress-Index reports:

• The City of Hopewell has shut down a local apartment complex, deeming it unfit for habitation. Residents of the Broadway East Apartments say that police knocked at their doors Tuesday morning, telling them to pack up and leave by midnight. The city has now extended the deadline until Friday.
  
  Assistant City Manager March Altman said that living conditions at the property on 600 E. Broadway are unsafe, unsanitary and pose a threat to the health, safety and welfare of the residents. "The city has taken the step of declaring the property unfit for habitation, and requested the tenants vacate the premises," Altman said.
  
  Human waste and sewage have created unlivable conditions at the apartment complex. "One of the residents called us to complain about the smell of sewer," Altman said. "We went out there last week and after we saw what was going on, we posted a note, ordering people to move," he said.
  
  Altman said that the it is likely that a sewage leak or backup has caused raw sewage to spread into the hallway and several apartments on the bottom of the 36-unit premises. He also said that black mold was found inside at least one unit.
  
  Anitra Garland, who has lived at the apartment complex for two years, said that the units on the bottom floor had been closed for quite some and that the sewage problem had never been fixed. "I could smell it in my bedroom, it was that strong," she said. "When I had people over, they would notice the smell as well and they would say that it stinks."

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• Altman said that the city regrets the discomfort that the evacuation causes for residents, but that it was necessary. "The city is acting in the best interests of the tenants of the apartment complex," he said. "While we are sympathetic to the residents' difficult situation, we cannot allow our citizens to live in the conditions that exist on the property."

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• Altman said that residents would be allowed to move back in once the owner has fixed the sewage leak and the affected units are cleaned up.

For more, see Residents forced out of Hopewell apartment complex.

The Death Of Sunny Sheu

Truthout recently ran a story on the late Sunny Sheu, the now-deceased Flushing, Queens homeowner who had his home stolen out from under him by reason of a forged power of attorney, and, in the battle to get it back, found himself murdered.

In his battle to get it back, and despite that the fact that the forgers were prosecuted and pled guilty, a bankster that had wrestled the property away through a wrongful foreclosure was never legally required to give it back and, in fact, was the beneficiary of the actions of a Queens County, New York judge who, according to Sheu, had consistently ruled against him and in favor of the bank, to wrongfully ensure that he never recovered his property.

According to the Truthout story, it wasn't until six months after his death that Sheu's house was somehow mysteriously returned to his estate with the mortgage fully paid.

For the story, see The Death of Sunny Sheu.

For the earlier 3-part series of reports on this story from Black Star News, see:

• Part 1,
• Part 2,
• Part 3.

Final Member Of Trio Pinched For Vandalizing, Torching Biracial Man's Home In Effort To Force Him To Move Sentenced For Housing Rights Interference

From the U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, D.C.):

• A Missouri man was sentenced [] to 30 months in prison for his role in the vandalism and arson of a biracial man's home in Independence, Mo., the Department of Justice announced. David Martin, 24, of Independence, was sentenced in the Western District of Missouri by U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple.
  
  On March 7, 2012, Martin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the Fair Housing Act. Martin's co-conspirators, Teresa Witthar and Charles Wilhelm, pleaded guilty on Feb. 2, 2012, and March 8, 2012, respectively, for their roles in vandalizing and burning down Nathaniel Reed's home in Independence.
  
  According to the plea agreement filed with the court, Martin, Witthar and Wilhelm conspired to intimidate and scare Reed, a biracial man, into moving out of the Highland Manor Mobile Home Park in Independence, in part because of his race.
  
  On or about June 6, 2006, Martin, along with Witthar and Wilhelm, entered Reed's mobile home, without his permission, and vandalized it by writing at least 15 racially derogatory slurs on the walls of his trailer.
  
  Two days later, on or about June 8, 2006, Witthar drove Martin and Wilhelm to a neighborhood behind Reed's home so that they could set fire to his home without being detected. Witthar waited in her vehicle for Martin and Wilhelm to set the fire and then provided them a ride back to the Highland Manor Mobile Home Park.
  
  "Every American has the right to live in their homes without fear of racially-motivated violence," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously enforce the Fair Housing Laws that prohibit these heinous acts."
  
  Witthar was sentenced to 63 months in prison on June 18, 2012. Wilhelm was sentenced to 42 months in prison on July 24, 2012.

For the Justice Department press release, see Final Missouri Defendant Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Vandalism and Arson of Biracial Man’s Home.

For earlier story on the sentencing of one of Martin's co-conspirators, see Man Gets 42 Months For Interference w/ Another's Housing Rights, Civil Rights Conspiracy; Played Role In Vandalizing, Torching Biracial Man's Home.

Down-And-Out Woman Seeking Refuge At Hotel For Homeless Scores $50K Settlement Of Suit Accusing Now Ex-Manager Of Sexual Harassment

From the U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, D.C.):

• The Justice Department announced [] that the owner and former manager of the Lowrey Hotel and Café in New Richmond, Wis., has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging they had sexually harassed a homeless woman who sought shelter at the hotel [go here for Consent Decree].
  
  The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Madison, Wis., on Nov. 23, 2011, involved the Lowrey Hotel & Café, a residential hotel that often provides housing to homeless people, who have been referred by local social services agencies.
  
  According to the complaint, Gerald Hoglund, of McClusky, N.D., formerly one of the hotel’s managers, sexually harassed a female tenant, who had been referred to the hotel by a social service agency, by making unwelcome requests to her for sexual favors.
  
  The complaint also alleged that Stacy Wright, co-manager and owner of the Lowrey Hotel & Café LLC, warned the tenant that Hoglund might ask for sexual favors but failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it.
  
  “It is unacceptable that a woman looking for shelter should be subject to sexual harassment at the very place where she has sought refuge,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.

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• “A person’s home should be a place of complete safety and security – no one should be subjected to unwanted sexual advances from any landlord,” said John W. Vaudreuil, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin.

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• The federal lawsuit arose when the tenant filed a complaint with the Chicago Regional Office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which conducted an investigation and, after issuing a charge of discrimination, referred the matter to the Department of Justice.

For the Justice Department press release, see United States Settles Fair Housing Act Lawsuit Against Wisconsin Housing Provider.