VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla — A retired Volusia County man thought his home was paid off but has now learned he could lose it.
“The dog and I will be homeless. You know? That’s what I’m looking at right now,” said Bill Tavernier.
Tavernier has been living in the Deltona home for nearly 20-years after moving in to take care of his aging mother.
His mom, Theresa, added him to the deed in 2007 then passed away in 2013.
Ever since then, he’s continued to live in the home. All that time he didn’t know his mom had a reverse mortgage on the home until he got hit with a lawsuit by the federal government to take the home away.
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Bill Tavernier explained, “My mom asked me to come. My dad had died, and she felt safer with someone else.”
They lived together until she died in 2013.
Tavernier knew his mom paid off the home years earlier and signed a quit claim deed adding him to ownership of the home in 2007. What he didn’t know was in 2001, his mom took out the reverse mortgage. A reverse mortgage allows the homeowner to take money out of the value of the home for other expenses. The loan typically gets paid back when the borrower passes away. Tavernier’s mom took out a little over $70,000.
“She was a wonderful woman, wonderful person, but that generation… you didn’t discuss any of that with your kids,” he said.
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For the next decade or so, Tavernier believed he could live out the rest of his days in the home if he chose, until this past summer. That’s when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD sued him to foreclose on the reverse mortgage.
Tavernier told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal, “I was in shock for a couple of weeks.”
With principal, interest, and other fees the federal government claims he owes nearly $190,000.
Since he and his dog Gunner survive mostly on Tavernier’s social security checks, that kind of money isn’t easy to come by. His attempts to fight the lawsuit on his own have been unsuccessful.
Orlando real estate attorney Barry Miller said, “Anytime you transfer property from one person to another, even if it’s a family member, do a title search. A title search costs a couple of hundred dollars. It’s worthwhile to see what’s there.”
Miller said a title search would have showed the reverse mortgage, so Tavernier would have had a heads up before his mom even passed away. He also recommends for anyone who takes out a reverse mortgage to notify their family to avoid scenarios like this. Miller suspects HUD didn’t realize Theresa Tavernier passed away until her son put the home on the market last year and it’s now calling in the loan which it’s legally entitled to do.
“They’re just going against the property. They’re not going to try to get a deficiency judgment or any money from him, because, of course, he’s not the borrower,” Miller said.
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Still, Tavernier is frustrated. He wonders why there was no communication or written correspondence all these years until the lawsuit. He’s also fearful for the future with the home now set to go to auction next month.
“Am I going to survive this? I don’t know. My dog and I are going to be homeless. That’s what I’m staring at,” he said.
Attorney Barry Miller said one good option would have been for Bill Tavernier to take out a reverse mortgage of his own right away to pay off his mom’s loan, but with the upcoming auction he’s running out of time.
Action 9 reached out to HUD to ask about the communication issue and if there’s anything it can do to hold off on the auction, but so far it has not offered any information.
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