Pete and Yang Bellacicco and baby Angelina lined up contractors to restore a neglected Fair Haven house they picked up at a foreclosure sale. Now a court maneuver may kill their plans — and keep blight on Lewis Street.
The property in question, a 112-year old oysterman’s house at 13 Lewis, was appraised at $135,000. The Bellaciccos (pictured with baby Angelina) won a foreclosure auction for the house by offering $76,000.01, topping the bid of the Deutsche Bank by one lucky penny.
That was on Sept. 6. Three weeks later, on Monday, Sept. 29, the Bellacicos received a letter from the attorney who conducted the sale that a motion has been opened to vacate the judgment of foreclosure which led to the sale to the Bellaciccos.
In other words, the court is now poised to reconsider whether it will let the Bellaciccos’ bid go through. Pete Bellacicco said it was unclear to him at this point who filed the motion.
Pete Bellacicco is aware that technically he and his wife do not become the owners until the court accepts the sale. “But we simply assumed it was going to be ours and we’re really emotionally invested.”
They arranged almost immediately for contractors to fix the place up beginning on the closing day. Now that’s in doubt. “This is not only bad for us,” he said. “If it doesn’t go through, it’s bad for the neighborhood as well. I mean these times are hard, but we’re fortunate. We have the cash to make the restoration happen, and quickly. Our plan is to have the work begin immediately and in three or four months, by the spring, have the place ready to rent, or maybe we’ll move in.” The family currently lives in a home nearby in Fair Haven. They are crime-fighting neighbors eager to maintain houses in the historic Quinnipiac River area.
The motion to essentially disapprove the sale is being heard Monday morning, at precisely the same time that the court is to review acceptance of the sale. It will be up to the judge to decide between the Bellaciccos and the still mysterious filer of the motion.
Will the Bellaciccos hire a lawyer to represent them? “We’re considering it,” Pete said, “but that’ll be, who knows, how many thousands of dollars? I’m not sure we can afford that too. Morally, to me, it’s just not right if the bank has initiated this, if they bid too low.”
Bartlett “Swallows Bitter Pill”
The house’s previous owner had been Jason Bartlett, the Bethel-area Connecticut state representative who, due to financial pressures, had not been able to maintain the house. (Click here to read details on that and on the events of the purchase.) Bartlett’s bad luck had been favorable fortune for the Bellaciccos, who also own a home in the area and are committed, crime-fighting neighbors, eager to maintain the houses in the historic Quinnipiac River area.
In early September, Bartlett was pleased when he heard about the foreclosure sale. He said the silver lining of what had obviously been a tough situation for him was that a solid, preservation-minded couple had been able to get the house and he wished them good luck.
Reached by telephone this week, Jason Bartlett only deepened the mystery about the new motion. “Honestly, this has got nothing to do with me,” he said. “I put this whole thing behind me. The first I heard of this was your phone call.”
So much so that he hadn’t even opened up the envelope from the court until a reporter’s call. When he perused it, he said that, yes, technically he had a certain amount of time after the foreclosure to buy it back, “but that’s absolutely not my interest.”
If he didn’t file the motion, might he speculate on what’s going on? “Well, based on my real estate experience, maybe there’s someone, an investor, who has an arrangement with the bank. Because the house is in pretty good shape and someone wants to buy it back from the bank, a short sale, but pay more for it than the local couple. That’s just a guess.”
A subsequent review of the wording of the motion to vacate revealed a supposed “workout” arrangement underway between the bank and Bartlett. Bartlett was asked about this in a follow-up conversation.
That did ring a bell with Bartlett, who is busy running for re-election. He said that indeed a month or so before the Sept. 6 foreclosure sale he had sent in an application to rearrange payments, that is, to do a workout on his payments for 13 Lewis.
“But the people I was dealing with were Washington Mutual, not Deutsche Bank” he said. “I sent the documents in, and I didn’t hear a thing. I assumed, as I said, that it wasn’t accepted, I swallowed the bitter pill, and the house was behind me.”
Washington Mutual failed and was bought by JP Morgan Chase, on Sept. 26. It was the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.
All the while, Bartlett’s application appears to have been somehow chugging along through the the pipeline. Could the bureaucratic mess, the right hand not know what the left mortgage hand is doing, have been exacerbated by the pending failure of “WaMu”?
“You would think,” said Bartlett, “that if the bank worked something out, at least they’d send me a letter, or let me know”
Bartlett was asked if, whatever the deal with his lenders, he is willing to let the Bellaciccos have the house.
“Look,” he responded. “I’m not going to say I’m not uninterested. At this point I have to contact the bank to see what gives.”
Reached yet again on Friday, Bartlett said the lenders had indeed miraculously surfaced and offered him “awesome” new terms and that he had a responsibility to consider taking them. He said his intent was not to keep the property ad infinitum. Regarding the Bellaciccos, he said, “I recognize if those people love the house, I’d consider selling it to them if in so doing I can settle my debt.”
But first the matter must come before a judge; the court is scheduled to hear and to decide the next chapter in the fate of 13 Lewis Street Monday morning at 9:30.
Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:
• Bank Outbids Akbar; Family May Keep Home
‚Ä¢ “So Don’t Worry About Pablo”
• Bankruptcy Postpones Foreclosure
• Next-Door Foreclosures, 53 Years Apart
• They Met On Foreclosure Way
• Little Garage Draws Big Bids
• A 2nd Chance on Lewis Street
‚Ä¢ Foreclosure Attracts New Breed of “Specialist”
‚Ä¢ In Foreclosures, Judge’s Hands Tied
• Home Saved From Foreclosure. Cycle, Too
• A House For Precious?
• Deutsche Bank Grabs Dixwell Condo
• Reluctant Bidder Snags F. Haven Bargain
‚Ä¢ Well, There’s Always Powerball
• Neighbors Retrieve Home From Bank
• Somebody Has Plans For Bassett Street
• Foreclosed, the Khennavongs Leave the Santanas
• Foreclosure Steal May Be Too Good
• 2nd Foreclosure in 3 Months Dims Bright St.
‚Ä¢ After Foreclosure, W’ville Owner Still Hopes To Sell
‚Ä¢ He’s Not Buying, Yet
• Quiet Foreclosure on Porter Street
• 3 Minutes Too Late
• Historic Gambardella Property Foreclosed
•2 Homes Lost, 1 Gained
‚Ä¢ “Everybody’s Got To Eat”
• More Foreclosures, More Signs
‚Ä¢ Foreclosure Sale Benefits Archie Moore’s
• Rescue Squad Swings Into Action
• A Bidder Shows Up
‚Ä¢ Bank Beats Tanya’s Bid
• Westville Auction Draws A Crowd
• DeStefano: Foreclosure Plan Ready
• Can They Help?
‚Ä¢ “We Should Over-Regulate These Bastards”
• Rosa Hears of Rescues
• WPCA Grilled on Foreclosures
‚Ä¢ WPCA’s Targets Struggle To Dig Out
• Sue The Subprimers?
• WPCA Hearing Delayed
‚Ä¢ Megna’s “Blood Boils” at WPCA Tactics
• Goldfield Wants WPCA Answers
• 2 Days, 8 Foreclosure Suits
• WPCA Goes On Foreclosure Binge
• A Guru Weighs In
• WPCA Targets Church
• Subprime Mess Targeted
‚Ä¢ Renters Caught In Foreclosure King’s Fall
‚Ä¢ She’s One Of 1,150 In The Foreclosure Mill
‚Ä¢ Foreclosures Threaten Perrotti’s Empire
‚Ä¢“I’m Not Going To Lay Down And Let Them Take My House”
‚Ä¢ Struggling Couple Sues Over “Scam”
To learn about the ROOF Project, a community-wide effort to help New Haveners navigate the foreclosure crisis, click here.
The following links are to various materials and brochures designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.
How to prepare a complaint to the Department of Banking; Department of Banking Online Assistance Form; Connecticut Department of Banking, Avoiding Foreclosure; FDIC Consumer News; Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, Inc; Connecticut Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service.
For lawyer referral services in New Haven, call 562-5750 or visit this website. For the Department of Social Services (DSS) Eviction Foreclosure Prevention Program (EFPP), call 211 to see which community-based organization in the state serves your town.
Click here for information on foreclosure prevention efforts from Empower New Haven.