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A WOMAN is being kicked out of her childhood home in a heartbreaking twist following her mom’s death from pancreatic cancer.
Mackenzie Stevenson, 21, says she’s being forced out of her city-run public housing due to a lease technicality.
The college student has lived in a non-profit housing unit in St. John’s, Canada’s easternmost city, with her mom, Michelle, since she was four years old.
However, Michelle became sick with cancer last summer and died four months later.
Stevenson said her mom was under the impression that her daughter was on the lease for their three-bedroom house before she died.
However, officials told her she had to move out after her mom’s death because she never physically signed the lease paperwork.
“The funeral was Friday and I was supposed to lose my house on Monday,” Stevenson told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
City officials eventually gave Stevenson a two-month extension after her mom’s funeral in November.
But now Stevenson is supposed to be out of her home by January 31.
“I was kind of just sitting around procrastinating moving out, hoping that somebody could do something,” Stevenson said.
“I was just kind of left in the dust.”
Stevenson said the city didn’t tell her she had to physically sign the lease to keep the house until it was too late.
Plus, Stevenson said she never received a verbal or written notice of eviction herself.
She said city officials have only spoken to her family members about the eviction.
A communications manager for the city said the lease was terminated immediately after Michelle’s death.
“When a lease owner passes, the lease is terminated effective immediately,” the city official told CBC.
The funeral was Friday and I was supposed to lose my house on Monday.”
Mackenzie Stevenson
“The housing division may offer an extension should the family members living in the unit need more time to find a place to live.”
The housing unit is expected to be put back on a waiting list for non-profit housing.
Stevenson is devastated that her mom’s wishes for her to stay in the house haven’t been kept.
“One thing my mom wanted to make sure of was the fact that I still had a house to live in, as any mom would,” Stevenson said.
“I moved in here when I was four,” she recalled.
“I can remember sitting at the kitchen table out there and blowing out my fifth birthday candles.”
The city of St. John’s hasn’t responded to The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.
How can your home be sold without your consent?
Your home can be sold from under you for various reasons – here are three key things to look out for:
Tax Sale
- A tax sale is the sale of property by a governmental entity to recover unpaid taxes by the owner who has reached a certain point of delinquency in their owed payments.
- Before a tax sale takes place, there is a right-of-redemption period where the owner can pay off their debt and reclaim their home.
- Each state has different laws surrounding tax sales but in most areas, the basic requirement is that adequate notice is given to the owner to pay the outstanding money, and any sale must be open to the public.
Foreclosure
- Foreclosures can take place when lenders take control of a property after borrowers have failed to make their repayments.
- Borrowers will receive a Notice of Default, triggering the foreclosure process.
- Homeowners in HOA communities can also see their homes foreclosed by their HOA for falling behind on fees.
- This means that even if you keep up with mortgage repayments, you could still lose your home if your HOA has a lien on your property.
- When such a foreclosure takes place, the sale price only needs to be enough to cover the HOA debt meaning that properties can be sold for much less than they are worth.
Property Fraud
- Criminals can use a fake or stolen ID to impersonate a homeowner in order to sell or mortgage homes.
- Typical targets for property fraud include absent owners like landlords, owners who live abroad, and sole owners of unmortgaged homes.
- The U.S. Sun previously reported on a man whose vacation home worth $300,000 was sold by criminals for just $9,000 – they even had the deed to the property.
