A Rerun On Atwater Street

The landlords didn’t show up. They live in Branford. The bank didn’t show either — it’s in Germany.

No potential buyers showed up, either, when 130 Atwater St. went on the block last weekend. A foreclosure sale was scheduled. The only people in front of the house were some teenage boys leaving the white building.

So that means a state of limbo will continue for Nita Diaz.

Diaz did show up at the foreclosure sale Saturday. It was a rerun of sorts for her — this is her second foreclosure as a renter.

Diaz and her husband moved into the house last December. They rent the the second and third floors, where they live with their six children. Their youngest is 4 years old.

Nitza Diaz takes care of the children while her husband works at a hardware store.

Diaz said she didn’t even know which bank was foreclosing on the property. (It’s Deutsche, which filed the most foreclosure suits in New Haven in 2008, 130 out of 945.)

Her absentee landlords, Kojo and Helen Gyamfi, defaulted on the house’s mortgage in 2007. The bank sent a note. According to legal documents, they failed and neglected to pay the default. Another note was sent in February.

Saturday, five months later the house was being auctioned off, with the Gyamfis nowhere to be found.

Back in March, Diaz’s son came running up the stairs saying there was a foreclosure sign being tacked onto the house. “I was surprised,” Diaz said.

Diaz’s 17 year-old daughter wasn’t home Saturday. She was in Tampa competing in a beauty pageant. Rather than accompany her, Diaz stayed home to see the outcome of the auction.

With no one buying the house, she said wondered what would happen next.

She said she knows one of the landords, Helen Gyamfi, pretty well. Diaz lived at one of Gyamfi’s other buildings in New Haven. Gymafi helped Diaz’s daughter get a job.

According to Diaz, the other tenants moved in about six months ago. Diaz’s neighbors also have kids.

The bank has yet to contact any of the tenants. The landlord has not returned any of Diaz’s phone calls (or the Independent‘s, seeking comment).

Diaz’s family has stopped paying rent. Peter Lerner, the court-appointed attorney handling Saturday’s sale, said he hopes the family put that money aside. Once the house has been foreclosed on, the bank can ask for rent.

Foreclosure is nothing new for Diaz. She described renting another New Haven home in 2007. Everything seemed fine, she said. Then “boom!” it was being foreclosed.

This being her second foreclosure, she was worried, she said. They moved shortly after hearing about the first foreclosure. This time, with the Atwater house, they decided to wait to see what would happen next.

The Gyamfis own two other properties in New Haven. One house is at 12 Saltonstall Ave., the other at 799 Quinnipiac.

A tenant on Saltonstall, Anna Diaz, said the house was foreclosed on months ago. She had been living at the house for four years, she said.

According to Anna Diaz, Helen Gymafi had settled with the bank and continues to own the house. Diaz added that the she had payed with money order checks and had seen a receipt.

No one answered the door at the Gyamfi residence in Branford (pictured). There was a parked BMW in the driveway.

The Quinnipiac Avenue home has also been foreclosed on; the bank claimed that the Gyamfis had not been paying taxes.

Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:

• Foreclosed House Flipped, Then Burned
• City Left Holding Foreclosed House
• WPCA Fails To Uproot Family
• A New Haven Dream Foreclosed
• This Is The Face Of Deutsche Bank
• Out-of-Town Bankords Respond To Call
• Banks Duck City On Foreclosed Homes
• Rescue Squad Hunts For “Tipping Points”
• John Wins A Loser
• Still A Bargain, Foreclosure Price Zooms
• Flippers Get 2nd Shot At Fixer-Upper
• Suburban Cop Finds A City Steal
• Absentee Banklords Thwart Foreclosure Sales
• City Forecloses On 40 Lots
• Crowd Seeks Cure For “Mortgage Distress”
• Donovan: “Help Is On The Way”
• Judge Forces WPCA To Give Mom A Chance
• WPCA Uproots Tenants, Too
• Home-Rescue Squad Ignores WPCA
• Sewer Agency Unloads House
• Foreclosure Evictions Halted
• Let The Bank Have It, This Time
• Hazel St. Sale Reflects Economic Climate
• Hill Foreclosure Triggers Memories, & Prayers
• Foreclosure Fee-Slashing Judge Leaves Town
• She’ll Be Watching Deutsche Bank
• A Last Pre-Foreclosure Look At A Lifetime Past
• New Yorker Snags Foreclosed-Upon Gem
• Foreclosure Dream Goes Sour
• Judge Slashes Foreclosure Bounty
• Tax Break Saves Woman’s House
• Bank Replaces “Gunshot Alley” Landlord
• Foreclosure Bill OK’d
• Singh Seeks Home For A Song
• Foreclosure’s Neighbor Worries More About Speeding
• Networking Replaces Foreclosure at Christy’s
• Foreclosure Bargain — & Renewal — Jeopardized
• Bank Outbids Akbar; Family May Keep Home
• “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
• Foreclosure Attracts New Breed of “Specialist”
• 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
• 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.
• After Foreclosure, W’ville Owner Still Hopes To Sell
• 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”

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.