New Haven Independent

At a Saturday morning public foreclosure sale, Freemont Investment took possession of this four-bedroom home at 150 Seneca Rd. With nobody showing up to bid, the mortgage lender and plaintiff in the foreclosure case won the auction with its faxed-in bid of $272,500. This amount was just over the house’s appraised value of $271,000.

The foreclosure reflected how the neighborhood of Westville, with its expansive lawns, spacious houses, and quiet residential streets, is not immune to the foreclosure crisis hitting New Haven and the nation at large.

Paul Opotzner, the owner of 150 Seneca and the defendant in the mortgage foreclosure case, said he received a bonafide offer for the house, but not in time to stop the foreclosure on his property. “I tried to stay the foreclosure,” he said on Saturday afternoon. “Yesterday I pleaded my case before a judge.”

He asked for 60 days to pursue the sale. The judge ruled against him because the plaintiff was not given enough time to object to the stay, Opotzner said. He is still talking with the bank about getting more time to sell before the title is transferred and the foreclosure becomes official.

Opotzner, who owns and runs Farricielli’s flower store on Forest Road, bought the Westville property for $272,000 in October 2006, according to a copy of the warranty deed included in the appraisal report. He has been renting it out since, along with two other properties he owns in New Haven.

The current tenant of 150 Seneca Rd. was at home during the auction, prepared to show the house if any interested bidders wanted a tour. She did not wish to be identified, she said, because she does not want her ex-husband to know her current address.

Opotzner later said that the court-appointed committee handling the public auction had recently told the tenant to be out by July 16, a short turnaround time that he called unethical.

As of July 12, the day of the auction, the tenant was still occupying the house, along with her six children, holding on to hope that whatever the outcome of the sale, the new owner would let her family stay in the place they’ve called home for almost two years.

Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:

• He’s Not Buying, Yet
• Quiet Foreclosure on Porter Street
• 3 Minutes Too Late
• Historic Gambardella Property Foreclosed
•2 Homes Lost, 1 Gained
• “Everybody’s Got To Eat”
• More Foreclosures, More Signs
• Foreclosure Sale Benefits Archie Moore’s
• Rescue Squad Swings Into Action
• A Bidder Shows Up
• Bank Beats Tanya’s Bid
• Westville Auction Draws A Crowd
• DeStefano: Foreclosure Plan Ready
• Can They Help?
• “We Should Over-Regulate These Bastards”
• Rosa Hears of Rescues
• WPCA Grilled on Foreclosures
• WPCA’s Targets Struggle To Dig Out
• Sue The Subprimers?
• WPCA Hearing Delayed
• 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
• Renters Caught In Foreclosure King’s Fall
• She’s One Of 1,150 In The Foreclosure Mill
• Foreclosures Threaten Perrotti’s Empire
•“I’m Not Going To Lay Down And Let Them Take My House”
• Struggling Couple Sues Over “Scam”

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.