By SCOTT JAMES
January 8, 2010
Giuseppa Bagnarol, 82, was in her final hours in August, dying at home surrounded by the large family she presided over as matriarch.
They gathered to say goodbye at the bucolic Redwood City retreat Mrs. Bagnarol had created — a compound of three homes cascading down a steep hillside where she raised chickens. Some of her children and grandchildren live on the grounds.
But that night an unwanted visitor arrived: a process server delivered papers that ordered Mrs. Bagnarol and her family to get out. The bank had foreclosed on their property, and they were all being evicted.
Emotions exploded. Not now, the family cursed. A sheriff’s deputy was called to keep the peace. Mrs. Bagnarol died a day later.
But the unfortunate timing of the official visit was not the only source of the anger. More troubling were the financial deals that led to the visit — and the decision by lenders to sign Mrs. Bagnarol up for one exotic mortgage after another.
“It’s definitely elder abuse,” said Carolina Bagnarol, her daughter. “There’s predatory lending here.”
Ms. Bagnarol has filed a lawsuit against a lengthy list of lenders she said took advantage of her mother. The loans plunged her mother deeper into debt with each mortgage payment, to the point of financial ruin. The lawsuit contends that Mrs. Bagnarol was pursued and persuaded — twice over — to take out ultimately disastrous loans on the family’s property.
In recent years, 70 percent of the elderly have been solicited to take out new mortgages, according to a survey by AARP.
“Older people seem to be targeted in part because they own their houses and have owned them for a long time and have equity in their houses,” said Jean Constantine-Davis, senior lawyer for the AARP Foundation.
Abridged
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