1970-10-15

              MINGDA1E PUBLIC LIPRAHY
2? if Main S t r e et
F a r n l n g d a l e , R. Y. 1 1W
Beginning This Week - Harking Back
By Iris and Alonzo Gibbs 10c on nflwsrtands
or $ 6 yearly
by mail locally
POWELL HOUSE 1700
FARMINGDALE OBSERVER
WHERE THE HISTORY OF YOUR COMMUNITY IS RECORDED WEEKLY
An Official" Newspaper of The Incorporated Village of Farmingdale — Serving Greater Farmingdale, Bethpage and Melville
Vol. 8 No. 8 Second Class Postage has been paid at Farmingdale, N. Y. 11735 Thursday, October 15, 1970
DALER FINDS HOPE
IN MORTGAGE HEARINGS How a Farmingdale residentlostliis home when a Mortgage broker
took over the deed to his house to advance overdue mortgage money,
was one of many tales of heartbreak heard on Monday in Garden City
before the State Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate Mortgage Frauds
and Tax Liens, chaired by State Senator Ralph Marino. What makes
the case of Ed Sowinski of 41 Merritt Road, Farmingdale unique is
that he has spent untold hours in research uncovering similar frauds
and wrote letters to scores of government officials until he found a
responsive ear in Senator Marino.
Sowinski's story began late in 1966 when he learned that a firm had
won an assignment of a judgment on $ 1,400 he owed. Sowinski, a
research engineer moved to Farmingdale December 1959. The
Nassau County Sheriff informed him that there was a demand for
immediate satisfaction of the judgment or auctioneering of the
debtors home valued at $ 20,000. Sowinski was thrown into a panic at
the notice, but managed to raise the money to pay the debt. In paying
the $ 1,400 judgment he fell $ 2,300 in arrears on his mortgage
payments to a bank. The bank, after carrying the arrears for awhile
published a notice of foreclosure.
Some mortgage operators, who scrutinize legal notices for victims
who are in financial trouble, offered to advance him the $ 2,300 he
owed on the home for a $ 1,500 bonus payment and asked that he sign
his deed over to the corporation they represented and would be per­mitted
to remain in his home ? fl a tenant for $ 140 a month.
To Sowinski, the offer appeared as a salvation and handed over the
deed. In August, 1968 he sought to buy back the deed, only to be told it
was tied up in litigation. Several months later he tried to repurchase
the deed again, and was told that it had been transferred and that he
would not get it back.. Sowinski is suing to bar the sale of his house
from the current deed- holder and to recover the deed upon payment of
the $ 3,800. Meanwhile he is residing at the 41 Merritt Road residence
hoping to buy back his deed.
At the Garden City hearing
Sowinski said: " Please let me
inform you of a group of men who
are vultures and executioners.
They take over homes valued in
excess of $ 5,000,000 a year in
Nassau County and their scan­dalous
actions affect over 300
families a year. The effect that
this has upon the children of these
families is disastrous. What I
have to say is true in this county'
and if it exists in other counties of
this State, then it can exist in all
States. " The Executioneers and
that is what they are, operate by
manipulating the finances of a
family, steal their home, bleed
Pictured are members of two of the four veterans
groups in Farmingdale who have formed a United
Veterans organization for the betterment of veterans
in this area. Left to right are Wally Wohlars and John
J. Monroe, past commander of V. F. W. Post 516 and
Robert Beebe and Fred Crane, past commanders of the
Talbonard American Legion Post. The two other
veterans organizations are the Jewish War Veterans -
and the American Legion Young Memorial Post of
East Farmingdale. Pokwti Pbpto
them white, dispossess them,
then sell the home for a big fat
profit."
It could happen to you,
Sowinski stated. A family has a
financial set back. The bread­winner
may be out of work or sick
and the family falls into debt.
Vultures approach the creditor
and arrange to take over the debt
for collection. Having full power
of the creditor, they take this
judgment to the county sheriff
and demand satisfaction and they
tell the sheriff that the debtor has
real property. The sheriff must
auction the real property to
satisfy the judgment of the
debtor. If the debtor stops the
sale by paying this judgment,
these ' vultures' will submit other
judgment to the sheriff. During
one of these sales they pick up a
sheriff's deed for as little as $ 50
on a home that has a market
value of $ 24,000."
Sowinski gave details with
names, locations and histories of
many cases.
He suggested corrective
legislation as well as the
establishment of a Guardian of
Deeds, at the County who would
be responsible to the Secretary of
State who would stop these
abuses.
• Marino has pre- filed a bill in
the State Legislature to require
personal notification of property
owners when the tax bill are due
and to require tax authorities to
sell the property instead of the
liens and to turn over the excess
funds to the former owner.
Marino has pre- filed a bill in
the State Legislature to require
personal notification of property
owners when the bill are due and
to require tax authorities to sell
the property instead of the liens
and to turn over the excess funds
to the former owner.
Marino said at the hearing
" Early this summer I learned of
a number of homeowners losing
their homes because of
unredeemed tax liens. In one
case involving a Mrs. Helen
Keegan in Massapequa, the
taxpayer lost her home because
she was 16' •> hours late in making
payment to redeem her property.
Many property owners have
become accustomed to paying
their taxes with their mortgage
payments. Once the mortgage is
paid they are unaware that they
must pay the taxes direct to the
receiver of taxes. Notices
published in newspapers
frequently do not result in per­sonal
notice to the homeowner
that his taxes are delinquent and
that his property will be sold.
" This committee is now con­sidering
legislation to extend the
licensing authority to the
Secretary of State to include
those persons engaged in real
estate speculations on a
professional basis.
Sowinski told the Observer that
one person had called it
" Something out of Dickens". Be
it ever so humble or ever so
grand, a Long Islander's home
can be sold out from under him in
a harsh process that sounds like
something out of the most dismal
chapters of a Charles Dickens
novel."
There were 14 other witnesses
at the hearing, mainly persons
who had lost their homes to
speculators when their mortgage
had become delinquent. Usually
( Continued on Page 12)
DALER STUDENTS CITED
Letters of Commendation
honoring them for their high
performance on the 1970 National
Merit Scholarship " Qualifying
Test have been awarded to 15
students at Farmingdale Senior
High School, Principal John A.
McLennan has announced.
The commended students are:
Richard H. Civil, Maryell
Digiacinto, Paul G. Dinas, Janet
Dodds, Marian J. Ebanks,
Jeanne M. Fanning, Theresa Ann
Frey, Carol Friend, Josel A.
Henner, Richard Kassker, Ellen
R. Pasternack, Gary R. Port,
Marc N. Schwartz, Joseph P.
Walton and Deborash J. Wood­ford.
They are among 35,000 students
in the United States who scored in
the upper two percent of those
who are expected to graduate
from high school in 1971. The
Commended students rank just
below the 14,750 Semifinalists
announced in September by the
National Merity Scholarship
Corporation.
The Commended students'
names are reported to certain
scholarship- granting agencies
and to the colleges they named as
their first and second choices
when they took the NMSQRT in
February 1970. The reports in­clude
home addresses, test
scores, and anticipated college
major and career intentions of
the Commended students. NMSC
encourages Ihese students to
make every effort to continue
their education.