Another Homeowner In Foreclosure Faces Premature Boot As Trigger-Happy Lender Changes Locks Before Public Sale

In Columbus, Ohio, The Columbus Dispatch reports:

• After she lost her job more than a year ago, Deborah Stevens knew she would not be able to keep her Galloway home. She didn't know she would be locked out of the home while she still had title or spend seven weeks trying to reclaim her possessions.

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• This past fall, as foreclosure became imminent, she began moving some belongings to her boyfriend's home in Canal Winchester. She spent more and more time there as she approached the sheriff's sale of her home, scheduled for Friday. On Oct. 20, she mentioned to a Flagstar attorney that she was considering turning off the utilities, because she could no longer afford them. She thought she was doing the bank a favor with the notice, but in fact, it initiated the steps that pushed her from the home.

• Flagstar, based in suburban Detroit, contacted another suburban Detroit company, Wolverine Real Estate Services, which secures foreclosed properties for lenders. On Oct. 30, Wolverine's crew removed the screen from Stevens' dining-room window, jimmied open the window, entered the home and replaced the locks. In addition to a pile of door locks and handles, the workers left a notice pasted to the window: "Attention: entry by unauthorized persons is strictly prohibited." More than a week later, Stevens found her home locked.

For more, see Foreclosure can bring lockout.