Evicted family breaks into their former house, recommended by their lawyer

HAS THE WORLD GONE NUTS...

or JUST THE U.S.?

By: Emily Peck
The Wall Street Journal
10/13/10
One of the long-shot outcomes of the current foreclosure mess could be a chaotic scenario in which people fight to get their foreclosed homes back.

Enter the Earl family in Simi Valley, Calif. Over the weekend, Jim and Danielle Earl reportedly took their nine children, ages 9-23, and a locksmith and broke into the six-bedroom house they used to call home. The move was recommended by their lawyer, according to a story on Aol’s HousingWatch.com.

Police officers were on hand when the Earls changed the locks Saturday but did not intervene, the Ventura County Star reports.

The Earls paid $500,000 for the house in 2001 and then refinanced to pull out cash. They fell behind on their mortgage and at the time of their eviction they owed about $880,000 on a no-interest mortgage.

Investors at Conejo Capital bought the house for $697,000 at a lender’s trustee sale and put $40,000 of work into a remodel, replacing carpeting and appliances, as well as upgrading the kitchen. They flipped it to new buyers for $800,000. Those buyers were supposed to move in this week; those plans are on hold.

The Earls claim that they were working with GRP Financial Services to catch up on payments, but discovered a $25,000 difference between what they believed they owed and what the bank said they owed. They then stopped making payments.

“This is only the beginning of this,” the Earls’ attorney, Michael Pines tells KABC News. “I chose this family because we needed to get back in before the investor and the real-estate broker defrauded a new family by having them move in, which would have created a bigger mess. (The Earls) have done absolutely nothing wrong.”

The Earls say it’s unclear who owns the loan. Foreclosure documents list GRP Financial Services. HousingWatch says that the original lender was Washington Mutual Bank which became JPMorgan Chase. The loan went to Bank of America on the same day that Chase sent the homeowners a notice of default. The Earls argue that Chase never properly assumed the loan and thus did not have the right to sell it off. And in turn, the investors, Conejo Capital Partners, did not properly purchase the property.

“They broke in and are proceeding to squat in there,” listing agent Chris Garvin of Troop Real Estate, tells HousingWatch. Mr. Garvin bought the home on the courthouse steps on behalf of Consejo.

The family’s attorney disputes that. “They may claim we’re violating the law,” he tells the Ventura newspaper. “We’re claiming they violated the law. Typically the authorities will say this is a civil dispute, but the question is, who owns the home? Because whoever doesn’t is trespassing.”