If Celia Elmira “Patricia” Clark signed her reverse mortgage after 2014 she might still be in her Orlando home today instead she has been forced to pack up and leave.
Clark and her husband William signed an agreement for a reverse mortgage in 2007.
The couple believed the deal would allow them to live in the place they bought in 1972 until they passed away.
Her husband was 62 she was 58, when they applied for the mortgage with Reverse Mortgage Solutions Inc.
But when her husband passed away at age 66, Reverse Mortgage Solutions wanted Patricia out
arguing her husband was the “sole borrower under the note and mortgage.”
“I guess it didn’t count anymore,” Clark says.
Veteran Tampa attorney Kelly Bosecker filed appeals on her behalf but was unable to convince the courts to allow Scott to keep her home.
“I disagree (with the decision)I mean I think it was clear in the paper work that Ms. Scott was a borrower but the court ultimately determined she wasn’t.”
Scott was scheduled to move out this week and is frustrated by the hard line stand the lender is taking.
“I can’t even stay here with a house payment they won’t even let me pay a mortgage payment to stay here they want all or nothing,” she says.
According to Bosecker “all” is $100,000 , something her client doesn’t have.
In fact, Bosecker has been handling the case pro bono.
The Federal Housing Authority changed the reverse mortgage rules in 2014 that include protection for the surviving spouse in a reverse mortgage agreement.
Nancy Hecht a certified financial planner in Altamonte Springs says you “have to make sure that the spouse whether they’re younger or of age are listed properly.”
Hecht says several of her clients have used a reverse mortgage, what she calls “a good financial tool,” successfully.
But she stresses there are fees to pay and the property taxes are still your responsibility.
Hecht says of all the new changes in reverse mortgage protocol the most important is what the surviving spouse must do to maintain the rights to the property.
“The surviving spouse has 90 days to change the title of that house, Hecht says, “ if they don’t then it becomes void and the whole reverse mortgage becomes due.”
For more information go to: https://www.aag.com/news/reverse-mortgage-rules