Wells Fargo is Evicting a 72 Year-old Woman with Advanced Alzheimer’s – Will you try to help stop this from happening?
Linda Normand has lived in her home for 40 years. She’s 72 years old. Her husband, a 22-year Marine Corps veteran, passed away in 2006, causing her a financial hardship resulting from the loss of his income.
Then she began to exhibit signs of Alzheimer’s, and over the intervening years, her disease has advanced and her condition has steadily worsened. Today, she is bed-ridden and in a nearly catatonic state.
Since her husband’s passing Wells Fargo has denied her application for a loan modification three times.
Then, her Wells Fargo representative suggested she try applying for assistance under “Keep Your Home California,” a program that can help California homeowners cure their deficiencies and therefore keep their homes, and so she did… and she was approved for the assistance program that would provide her with the funds needed to fully reinstate her loan.
Only then, Wells Fargo said her investor doesn’t participate in the Keep Your Home California program.
So, what kind of sick game are we playing here? And what kind of investor doesn’t participate in a program that writes a check for the amount the homeowner owes in order to bring the loan current? It’s like saying that the investor doesn’t participate in receiving the amount of cash he or she is owed, is it not?
Before I say anything about the circumstances and possible solutions, let me just say that if someone applies and is denied for a loan modification once, it could be the homeowner’s fault. If they reapply and are again denied, maybe… just maybe, it’s the homeowner’s fault once again. But, if that person is told to reapply and they’re turned down a third time… then it’s the bank’s fault, not the homeowners. Period.
And in this case, her income hasn’t changed, it’s the same as it was several years or so ago when her husband passed away. So, why the need to reapply at all? It’s not like she’s a working age person who’s got a new job or like her expenses could have possibly changed in any significant way. I mean, that’s why they call it being on a “fixed income,” right? Because at that point, things are pretty much “fixed.”
So, now it’s come all the way down to the wire, as they say. Her home was sold and she’s now being evicted. Her son has moved in with her and is trying everything to get Wells Fargo not to evict his mom, because evicting her will likely result in her death. Late stage dementia patients are particularly prone to falls. Patients forget how to walk (gait apraxia) and seem uncoordinated with the placement of their feet. Patients can no longer follow verbal direction and communication barriers complicate moving these patients.
One physician explained it this way…
“The big disadvantage to moving someone who is well-settled in his or her home is that it will probably take a very long time for that individual to feel settled again. It’s likely that Linda would experience a marked decline and not go back to her original level of capabilities as she had before the move.”
Her son has offered Wells a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure, if the bank will just wait for her death to take possession of the property. He has offered to pay rent on the home as long as she’s living there.
Honestly, I don’t understand why Wells Fargo… or any bank for that matter, wouldn’t agree to such an arrangement under such circumstances. She’s an advanced Alzheimer’s patient… everyone agrees that it’s likely that she won’t survive the eviction… why can’t she just pay rent for a few months? Why can’t Wells Fargo wait for her death to take possession of the home. There’s even some equity in the property, maybe $80,000 – $100,000… so it’s not like Wells won’t get their money back after she passes.
I don’t know the answer to any of this.
I don’t know why the bank would want to evict a 72 year-old woman with advanced Alzheimer’s. I don’t know why there aren’t laws in place to prevent such a thing from happening. We’ve got laws that protect renters from being evicted from foreclosed properties.
I don’t know why a bank would encourage someone in Linda’s situation to apply three times for a loan modification… and then deny her in the end. And I absolutely don’t understand why Wells Fargo, after encouraging her to apply for Keep Your Home California assistance, would say that the investor doesn’t participate in a program that would write a check for the amount needed to reinstate the loan in question. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Wells Fargo/America’s Servicing Company participates in Keep Your Home California, by the way. You can find them on the program’s listing of participating servicers under “˜W.’
And yet, those are the facts of Linda Normand’s life as I write this, even though her son has tried everything imaginable, called every number he could find… including getting ripped off at least once by some company who claimed to be able to help… and today he has a lawyer who is trying to come up with a way to stop it in the courts.
The lawyer knows that it’s not going to be easy, but the lawyer cares enough to try.
So, he called me, and I cared enough to try by writing this in the hopes that you’ll care enough to send Wells Fargo’s CEO, John Stumpf, an email asking him to care enough to do something about this needless tragedy before it’s too late.
I found this email address for Wells Fargo’s CEO: john.G.Stumpf@wellsfargo.com.
I also found this one for communicating with the bank’s Board of Directors: BoardCommunications@wellsfargo.com.
Her name is: Linda J. Normand
And her address is: 7821 Davmor Avenue, Stanton, CA 90680
Will you help me DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS? PLEASE? I CAN’T DO IT ALONE. WILL YOU TRY? WILL YOU ASK OTHERS TO TRY TOO?
Mandelman out.