Save Grandma's Farm

Please help stop foreclosure!

After more than 25 years of never missing a mortgage payment Louise Taylor is in imminent risk of loosing her home. Louise lives in a small town in Northern California where she has raised her family and continues to care for her elderly aunt who lives with her and who suffers from Alzheimer's. Louise has always been a giving person, opening her home to those in need and her land to local 4-H kids who had no other place to raise their animals for the local fair.

Due to a $16,000 lien placed against her home by the county that she lives in her mortgage payment has skyrocketed from $610 a month to $1,978 a month. Louise lives on a fixed and very limited income. Just enough to make her previous mortgage payment and a very modest lifestyle. Louise was making her payments until the lien made it impossible. She has continued to make payments in the original amount but the lender is not satisfied with that amount.

Louise is trying in good faith to work with her lender on a modification (for near a year) but due to the lender switching representatives several times and losing her paperwork it not does not look promising if we cannot buy her some more time. Louise must pay $3,000 by December 13, 2011 or the lender will begin foreclosure. Our goal here at Save Grandma's Farm is not to pay off Louise’s entire mortgage but to buy her enough time to work out a loan modification with her lender.

You can help without spending a dime. Many of our sponsors are contests and free offers. You can also buy things that you would buy anyway and help. Alternatively you can choose to donate (even $1 helps) by clicking the Donate Now button. If you can’t donate and don’t want to complete an offer please “Like” us on facebook and share this page with your friends. If you have any knowledge or advice that would help someone in danger of foreclosure please send us an email or leave a comment in the Community section. We would love to be able to provide some resources or information to others who are facing foreclosure.

100% off all funds generated on this site will be applied to Louise’s mortgage. The operators of this website do not make anything for this service.

$1,900 a month may seem like an extremely high amount for a $63,000 - 30 year mortgage, and it is. The reason it is so high is because the lien portion must be paid within a year.

The Lien

The lien placed on the property was not for taxes but due to a controversial ordinance passed by the county that allows a non elected county employee to decide what you are allowed to have on your property and then OVER charge the homeowner for removal of whatever they decide is "junk". $16,000 in Louise's case.

Family and friends pulled together and helped as much as work schedules, daylight and weather permitted. Long story short even though we made HUGE progress and hauled at least 20 truck and trailer loads to the landfill, the county decided we didn't get it done fast enough. In fact it appeared that us making strides to improve the property only escalated the county's timeline and they hurriedly sent out their own crew to take over.

The quicker that we removed the 'offending' items the quicker the county stepped up their own efforts to do the job themselves, not wanting to lose out on the money I am sure. Because the way the ordinance was written there is no due process or accountability of the people involved. If you go to a hearing on the matter there isn't even a judge presiding but one of several local attorneys that rotate for the duty.

The "clean up" jobs are outsourced and bid on before the cleanup begins. This would imply that the amount charged $16,000 is what was bid before the property had already been cleaned up by friends and family. The county and the contractor got paid for work that they did not do! We would have loved to have fought this in court but the resources weren't available and now it's too late since the mortgage company already paid them off.

Aside from charging a hugely excessive amount for the cleanup they took things from the property that they were not supposed to take. The law that applies to the cleanup clearly states that agricultural uses are exempt and that any items on the property that are being used in agricultural (Louise allowed local 4-H kids to raised pigs on her property at the time) are to be left alone. They took structural materials for pig pens and horse stalls including complete insulated walls that were going to be erected as soon as weather permitted. One of the guys on the cleanup crew was observed picking something up and putting it in his pocket. I have a strong suspicion that this whole deal was for the county to drum up money, a back door way to enforce eminent domain and take my mom's property without compensation or just old fashioned Good Ol' Boy cronyism between un elected county employees with no accountability and the contractors that get the clean up jobs.

Big Fat Disclaimer

Any statements regarding any possible wrongdoing on the part of anyone involved in this matter is personal opinion. I am not stating categorically that something illegal or unethical occurred only that suspicions exist.

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