Mortgage company forecloses on property owned by Marshall Fire victim because he's not living there
UPDATE: Mortgage company rescinds foreclosure on Marshall Fire victim's property
An 80-year-old Superior man who lost everything he owned in the Marshall Fire could now lose his property too after his mortgage company foreclosed on it because he hadn't lived there in a year.
Ed Sharp has a reverse mortgage, which comes with an occupancy requirement. He has to live in the house. If he's gone for more than a year -- regardless of the reason -- the mortgage company can foreclose and sell his property.
A Navy veteran, Sharp moved to old town Superior with his wife Ruby in 1970, before there was an "old town."
In the span of three years, he lost his wife to emphysema, a lung condition, and his house to the Marshall Fire.
"We tried to talk him out of rebuilding because he is 80 years old," said his daughter-in-law Maggi Sharp. "But he said, 'no this my home. This is where I want to be,' so we said 'okay, let's do it.'"
A decision that Maggi Sharp says they would both regret at times. She says the mortgage service provider has been so slow to release their insurance proceeds, they've used the money they received for contents to rebuild: "He's wanted to quit. I've wanted to quit. It's been a really, really hard year."
They thought the worst was over when Ed Sharp's new manufactured house arrived a week ago. Then Boulder County Treasurer Paul Weissmann reached out.
"He said 'your mortgage is in foreclosure,'" recalled Maggi Sharp. All she could think was, "impossible."
She says they didn't even get a warning: "After all we've been through, and then for this to happen, it's not right."
Had Weissmann not flagged the foreclosure, she says, she wouldn't have even known about it. Weissman was around for the 2013 Boulder County flood when the issue first surfaced. He tried to get state lawmakers to address it then, but they refused.
Democratic State Rep. Kyle Brown, whose district includes Superior, is hoping to convince the current legislature to do what the previous one failed to do: "Folks who have reverse mortgages should not be foreclosed upon in the event that a natural disaster makes their home or their property unlivable."
Brown plans to introduce a bill extending the time that someone with a reverse mortgage can be out of their home to five years after not only a fire but any disaster going forward. It's not retroactive, which means it won't help Ed Sharp.
However, federal regulations require mortgage companies to notify borrowers of foreclosure so Maggi Sharp may sue if her father-in-law's mortgage company continues with the sale set for June 15.
She says he's already getting calls from realtors, but she's not giving up: "He's a strong man but how much more can one person take?"