Allan Appel Photo
Mary Walters’s husband was in the hospital, seriously ill with diabetes. Her grandchildren could no longer visit the first-floor apartment she rents at 17 Nash St. due to a mice infestation that terrified them. At noon on Saturday the building faced a foreclosure sale, and she an uncertain future.
A last-minute stay due to a bankruptcy filing led not only to a reprieve but to a new and unusual friendship: between Walters and one of the potential buyers, a local lawyer. The lawyer offered to help Walters remain in her home, regardless of the eventual outcome.
Walters has lived in the first floor of the century-old two-family house in the East Rock neighborhood for nine months. When landlord Helen Gyamfi who lives in Branford, came to collect Walter’s $800 rent on June 1, she didn’t’ reveal that the house was subject to a strict foreclosure sale on July 10, Walters said.
She found out about the pending sale two weeks ago when a potential buyer came by to look at the house.
“It was a surprise,” said Walters.
Also a surprise, and a pleasant one, is that the foreclosure did not occur.
On Friday night, it was stayed due to a chapter 13 bankruptcy filing by the landlord according to Robert Lynch, the court-appointed attorney handling the sale. He posted cancellation notices at 10 a.m. Saturday.
This was not Gyamfi’s first go-around with foreclosure.
According to land records, she and relatives own approximately a half dozen houses in East Rock and Fair Haven. This landlord is having trouble.
Gyamfi did not return calls for comment for this story.
Mary Walters said that Gyamfi lost 30 Nash St., across the street, to a recent foreclosure proceeding. Walters’ sister is living in that house, also awaiting the outcome.
The landlord had filed the bankruptcy to try to keep 17 Nash, which, by all measure of the neighborhood and the charm of a wainscoted porch, has much potential, although the interior needs a complete rehab.
“She doesn’t take care of the property,” said Walters.
According to Walters, when she showed Gyamfi the infestation of mice that keep the grandchildren away, “She told me to use bubble gum. She said their stomachs would swell and they would die.”
It didn’t seem to work.
In the aftermath of the foreclosure that wasn’t, Walters described the building as very poorly maintained. When her husband was being helped down the stoop to go to Yale-New Haven Hospital, the railing he clung to gave way as a bracket separated from the concrete step.
The bankruptcy gives time, but doesn’t alter the foreclosure, according to attorney Lynch, who lingered to talk with Walters.
Also showing up was another local property owner and attorney, Albert Annunziata. He owns about a dozen properties in East Rock and around the city. Unlike Walters’ landlord, he lives in one of the houses, on Humphrey, and is a determined long-term investor in East Rock, as well as an area booster.
Neither attorney wanted to be photographed for this story. Lynch said at least 10 other people besides Annunziata called with interest in the property.
Annunziata was a different kind of potential buyer, the opposite of the out-of-town owners, whose inattentive stewardship often leaves poorly maintained buildings in its wake.
When Annunziata came by 17 Nash on Thursday, two days before the foreclosure, Mary Walters showed him around. Tenants are under no legal obligation to do so. She was patient and gracious, according to Annunziata. He liked what he saw enough to prepare a check for $34,000 in hand, 10 percent of the recent appraisal. He also appreciated her openness.
“I came by two days ago. She introduced herself,” Annunziata said.
“’If you get it, can I stay?’” the lawyer recalled her asking. “I said sure.”
That was a relief for Walters. Her husband’s condition includes a bipolar disorder that makes him agitated around new circumstances. Plus Walters likes the nice quiet area, and the block watch.
She said her grandkids (before they became terrified of the mice) left the door open overnight several times, and no problems ensued. “I hate to move,” she said.
The bankruptcy filing indicated to Annunziata that the landlord is trying to reorganize her finances and to hold onto the property. He understood that. 17 Nash has great potential, with perhaps hidden treasures below the current plywood floorboards of the porch and cracked sheet rocking.
According to court documents, Helen and Kyoto Gyamfi bought the property in 2000 for $58,000. With 17 Nash as collateral, they took out a $150,000 mortgage with a Tribeca Lending Company in New York City, care of Franklin Credit Management in Jersey City. That was in 2005.
By December 2008, a motion of foreclosure was initiated. In November 2009, Tribeca had also transferred or assigned the mortgage to one Huntington National Bank, another out of town entity.
By the beginning of 2010, the mortgage with interest and penalties had ballooned to slightly over $200,000. Huntington made a motion for strict foreclosure in April.
Annunziata said he thought the most recent appraisal of the house, at $340,000, was way too pricey. The bank had come prepared with a fixed first bid of $90,000.
“There would have been a bidding war,” Annunziata said, had the auction gone through. He did not say what he was prepared to bid. He predicted it might have gone for $150,000
The area recommends itself, and he pointed to a brick house across the street. It was rehabbed so that it was “mint.” It sold for $350,000, he reported.
Annunziata said if he were to get the house in a future auction, he would put on a new roof, attend to the basement (Walters says it’s unusable and clogged with the landlord’s things), and paint.
“I’m interested in East Rock, I plan to hold onto all my property,” he said. He cited his volunteer work with groups like the South of Humphrey Street civic association.
Annunziata was more than a potential local buyer. He offered Walters free legal advice about her rights to stay in the apartment, had the sale gone through.
“She had a tough break with her husband,” he said, as he sat down beside her on the porch and fielded a cell phone call. “I didn’t want her to worry.’
“You want to stay, stay. I don’t want the place vacant [while repairs are done],” he told her.
Next step: She’s going to give him the landlord’s number. He might call her, he said. Maybe something can be worked out.