When it comes to the home-lending crisis, I figured that I'd heard it all: People losing their homes, discovering that their homes were not the automatic money-maker that they once were, treasured companion animals abandoned as evicted families leave.
But when the loan company foreclosed on Louisville resident Emily Trowel, her problems were only beginning.
As reported by Jason Riley of the Courier-Journal Sunday, Ms. Trowel bought the home in a lower-income area of the city in 1990. Her mother transferred ownership for $1.
Ms. Trowel's plan was to take out a mortgage to repair the home, using rent from other family members living at the house to repay the loan. When the family members moved out, Ms. Trowel, who makes $7.65 per hour working at Target, couldn't keep up her payments.
Ms. Trowel says the company sent a man to her home on two occasions. The man reportedly threatened her with eviction. On the second trip, the man reportedly disabled plumbing in the home, forcing her to move. (Beneficial denies that these events occurred.)
Beneficial initiated foreclosure proceedings in 2003, and the company received an order for the house's sale. Then the company abruptly dropped the case in 2004, leaving Trowel the legal owner of the home -- and legally responsible for more than 30 housing code violations from the city that began piling up after she moved out.
Maybe it was the $3,000 in fines the property has accrued since Ms. Trowel was forced to move. Maybe it was the tree that fell on the house while it was vacant. Maybe it was the $3,000 in back taxes owed on the land.
Or maybe it was the realization that taking over the property would mean taking on a boatload of debt.
Because the foreclosure did not go through, all those problems revert to Ms. Trowel, who could go to jail for 120 days because of the home's disrepair. She can't sell the house -- or even give it away -- because of the lien.
"I guess this could go on as long as I'm living," said Ms. Trowel. "I just want it to be all over with."
Somehow, I can't help but feel that someone at Beneficial was trying to make a sales quota the day Ms. Trowel walked into their office all those years ago. If -- a helpful employee could have taken a good look at Ms. Trowel's financial picture, this entire mess might have been avoided.
Ms. Trowel could have sold the house then and invested the proceeds. The loan company wouldn't have to write off the loan, and Ms. Trowel's one-time neighbors wouldn't be stuck with an eyesore.
But Beneficial, in this case, was a brand, not a description.