Orlando city commissioner says mix-up led to foreclosure ruling

Article Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel

By Jeff Weiner  

Published May 29, 2015

 

A circuit judge in Orange County last month put a home owned by Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill on the auction block, finding that she owed more than $160,000 in unpaid mortgage, taxes and interest, records show.

 

But Hill on Tuesday said that ruling resulted from a mix-up. Hill said she has been making payments on the house for the past year and has come to terms with her mortgage provider that were supposed to keep it out of foreclosure.

Attorneys representing a mortgage loan trust filed for foreclosure against Hill in October 2012, alleging that she had stopped making payments that April on the five-bedroom, three-bath 2,400-square-foot house on Baywood Avenue, in Orange County.

 

Hill purchased the home in 1997. Her loan was originally for $86,550, but had been modified several times.
 

Commissioner Regina Hill says house shouldn't have been foreclosed, put up for auction.


Last month, after a non-jury trial that Hill did not attend, a judge ruled in the trust's favor and found that Hill owed $134,000 in principal on the mortgage, plus thousands more in taxes, interest and fees.

The total tally was $164,081.57. If unpaid, the judge ordered that the home go up for auction online Aug. 26.

This case underscores the fact that submitting a mortgage modification application does not stay the foreclosure action, unless of course, the bank specifically consents that its foreclosure action is suspended and stayed during the processing of the mortgage modification application.

In an interview, Hill said the case "shouldn't have gone to court." She said she has been working with her bank, Wells Fargo, to modify her mortgage, and the foreclosure action was supposed to have been "suspended."

"I've been paying on it for a whole year, actually," Hill said.

The attorney of record for the plaintiff in Hill's foreclosure case could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Hill is the second local politician to suffer a foreclosure-court defeat recently.

Orange County Commissioner Victoria Siplin's Holden Heights condominium is set for auction May 22. Public records showed Siplin hadn't paid the mortgage since 2008, and had never paid property taxes on the three-bedroom condo.


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