James Pendry owns 233 Hillspoint Road — the “blue house” that has been back in the news lately. He writes:
There have been several newspaper articles written about a notice of auction for the property at 233 Hillspoint Road.
Some have been full of inaccuracies and snarky, with 2-year-old photos. The “06880” post was respectful and straightforward, but also had a couple of key mistakes.
The house has a mortgage which can be foreclosed upon if the terms of the mortgage are not being followed. Such a foreclosure is a judicial process, with all its safeguards and principles of due process.
233 Hillspoint Road: The view from the street …
What has been threatened here (and buried in the very small print on the last page), on the other hand, is an Article 9 UCC foreclosure of the LLC interest — a rarely used tactic which is explicitly non-judicial, and therefore a theoretically easier and faster way to take possession of a property, albeit indirectly and full of its own vulnerabilities.
The announced auction will never take place, and should never have been noticed.
The attorneys are talking. The mortgage (only 35% of the property’s appraised value) will be repaid in full by the end of the month, in all likelihood.
The notice became public when the auctioneer disingenuously inquired about the cost of running the notice for budgetary reasons. Disingenuous in that the property owner has to pay for notice in any event, and the price could have been easily ascertained by describing the number of lines that would run.
Given the property’s unfortunate and somewhat notorious history, the publisher considered the announcement “news,” and published.
… and the beach.