Court mix-up leaves family evicted for day
MIAMI (AP) – Anna Ramirez thought she had dodged foreclosure after a judge stepped in at the last-minute to block her home’s sale. So it was a devastating shock when a buyer showed up with police to evict her family.
A clerical error at the court had let the buyer complete the purchase, and she and her family were told to gather their things and leave. She even tried showing the officers a judge’s order, but her family was still kicked out.
“I felt terrible. I was crying the whole time,” Ramirez, a 52-year-old cook at a Mexican restaurant, said Thursday of the daylong eviction. The ordeal ended after they pointed the mistake out to a judge the next day.
The trouble began when Ramirez and her husband fell behind on their $2,159 house payments. Her parents had purchased the suburban Miami home for $260,000 three years ago, but it was up to Ramirez and her husband to pay the mortgage.
J.P. Morgan Chase, the mortgage holder, began foreclosure procedures and the home was auctioned June 10 for $87,000. A week later, the parents convinced Circuit Judge Israel Reyes to reverse the sale. He ordered both sides to work out a repayment plan, which they did, cutting about $600 a month off the bill.
But Ramirez said the court clerk didn’t tell the buyer, who showed up with police Aug. 12. Ramirez, her husband and 20-year-old nephew were told to leave the 3-bedroom, 2-bath home.
The next day, Reyes ordered the Ramirez family back into the home. Court documents show that Reyes also ordered the clerk to update the docket immediately to reflect the changes.
Chase spokeswoman Nancy Norris said that there was “miscommunication” and that there appears to have been a clerical error in the court system.
“We did everything we could to help the homeowner,” Norris said.
The Miami-Dade County court clerk’s office did not return a call Thursday for comment. Miami-Dade courts spokeswoman Eunice Sigler said she could not comment on the active case.