Woman Returns To Previously-Vacated Home After Lender Abandons Foreclosure Suit; Seeks To Stop Demolition, Says City Failed To Serve Her With Notice

In Mansfield, Ohio, the Mansfield News Journal reports:

• The City Planning Commission gave Tina L. Smith-Powell two weeks to explain how she'll manage to make $50,000 to $60,000 worth of repairs to a deteriorated house. Smith-Powell is appealing a demolition order on 152 W. First St.

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• Attorney Joe Olecki said Smith-Powell never received official notice of pending demolition, raising legal issues. "They (building and codes) were sending it to the mortgage company's address, and not to her," he said. [...] Building and codes manager Linda Price said the demolition notices were sent to the address listed on the county auditor's Web site -- which listed Smith-Powell's name, but an address for the mortgage company.

• Smith-Powell said she moved out of the house after the mortgage company began foreclosing, believing she no longer owned it. The mortgage company later declared bankruptcy, abandoning the foreclosure action -- but she was not aware of that until October. [...] Commission members tabled making a decision on the appeal, saying Smith-Powell has many questions to answer. She was asked to return in two weeks with cost estimates for all repairs needed to bring the house to code, a plan for how she'd pay for or accomplish that, and a timeline.

For the story, see Woman tries to save her First Street home.