Uxbridge veteran’s family beat foreclosure

Uxbridge veteran’s family beat foreclosure

 

February 11, 2011

 

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Lisa and Michael Damon of Uxbridge with their children, Max, 6, and Abby, 9. (ED COLLIER)

 

By Bill Fortier TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

wfortier@telegram.com

 

 

UXBRIDGE — Displayed in the kitchen of the home at 169 North Main St. is artwork done by the family’s children, who played and watched television as frigid winds blew outside. On guard was the family dog, a combination black Labrador and Dalmatian named Sherpa. 

 

The peace in the cheerful home, owned by Lisa and Michael Damon, belies the struggles they have faced to keep it in their name and as a home for the children, Max, 6, and Abby, 9. 

 

The Damons were caught up in a two-pronged crisis that caused California-based Countrywide Home Loans to foreclose in late January 2008, according to Mrs. Damon, a town native. 

 

The foreclosure came after Mr. Damon returned from Iraq, where he wore 70 pounds of body armor while on duty with the Army National Guard. The armor and combat duty brought him to the point where he now needs a hip replacement. Mr. Damon also was unable to get money through the state’s Workers’ Compensation Law. 

 

In 2007, Mr. Damon’s war-related injuries kept him from working and he recuperated at his home. Because he was unable to even care for the children, his wife couldn’t work full time. Meanwhile, the adjustable rate mortgage they took out in 2004 skyrocketed to 10 percent. And that doubled the monthly mortgage. 

 

They thought they were doing everything the right way. Their vehicles had been paid for, and they didn’t owe any money on credit cards when the foreclosure hit. Mrs. Damon tried to talk to Countrywide officials about her family’s circumstances, but the foreclosure notice arrived in January 2008. 

 

Mrs. Damon contacted Northbridge lawyer Faith Lane, who suggested she contact the nonprofit Legal Assistance Corp. of Central Massachusetts, where lawyer Andrea M. Park got on the case. Also, a story on foreclosures in the Telegram & Gazette that featured the Damons got the attention of Karen E. Duffy, president and CEO of Worcester Credit Union, who also got on the case. 

 

“I read the story and said, ‘This is not right’ ” said Ms. Duffy. “I just thought it was so wrong that someone who was serving this country, and this family, were having this terrible problem.” 

 

Ms. Park and Ms. Duffy worked closely with the Damons, and WCU stepped up to ensure the Damons received what Ms. Duffy termed a solidly underwritten and affordable 30-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.1 percent interest. Ms. Duffy said the interest rate was the best available at the time. That effort led to the Damons repurchasing their home in December 2009. 

 

“Karen Duffy saved my life,” said Mr. Damon. 

 

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The new mortgage was based on an appraisal of the home by Boston Community Capital, a nonprofit organization that works to provide mortgages to people like the Damons. Ms. Park and Ms. Duffy are working toward starting a nonprofit organization in Central Massachusetts to perform a role similar to the BCC. 

 

Ms. Park is working with others to repurchase homes that have been foreclosed on, but as of now the Damons are the only couple she has worked with that have been able to do that. 

 

The process leading to the happy ending for the Damons involved many calls during 2007 by Mrs. Damon to Countrywide, which has since been bought by Bank of America. Ms. Park also attended several Worcester Housing Court hearings in Uxbridge District Court with the Damons, where Judge Diana Horan ruled the family could stay in the home. 

 

Ms. Park’s argument in the Housing Court hearings — that irregularities in the foreclosure process caused much of the problems for the Damons — was a major reason the family never left the home, Ms. Duffy said. 

 

Ms. Park said Mrs. Damon’s dogged pursuit of Countrywide officials enabled her family to stay in the house after the foreclosure notice was filed, and Judge Horan took that into account in her ruling. Ms. Park ultimately sued Countrywide, which serviced the mortgage that was foreclosed on, and sued mortgage owner, Deutsche Bank. Ms. Park argued Countrywide wasn’t responsive to the Damons’ efforts to resolve the foreclosure. The suit was settled when the Uxbridge couple got their refinanced mortgage from the WCU. 

 

“Lisa Damon made innumerable attempts to contact Countrywide to discuss a solution to their temporary income reduction due to Mike’s injury and was initially told that they could and would be helped. However, no specific representative at Countrywide was ever assigned to their loan and a foreclosure was initiated without proper notification or communication,” Ms. Duffy said in a written narrative on the matter. 

 

The Damons’ case was buttressed by the meticulous recordkeeping done by Mrs. Damon during the ordeal, Ms. Park said. 

 

Mr. Damon returned last June from another assignment in Iraq. He has worked at Kay-Gee Sign and Graphics Co. on Route 12 in Auburn since October 2009, according to general manager Michael T. Hannigan, and is now the production manager. 

 

“He’s a heck of a guy,” said Mr. Hannigan. “He’s a ‘get-things-done’ kind of a guy.” 

 

Mr. Damon says Ms. Park is a ‘gets-things-done’ woman. 

 

“She’s just about 5 feet tall,” he said. “But when she walks into a room, she takes it over.” 

 

Mrs. Damon said her message to others in similar dire straits is simple: “It’s a cliché, I know, but I would tell somebody to ‘keep fighting and not give up,’ ” she explained. “If you’re right, don’t quit, and we knew we were in the right. 

 

Added her husband, “Right now, life is better than good.”  ▪