Roseville woman in danger of losing home after inheriting father's loan

ROSEVILLE, Mich. (WJBK) - A Roseville woman is at risk of losing her home on Petrie Street after inheriting her father's home equity loan.

Michelle Hogue has lived in the home nearly her entire life, but is now in danger of losing it after he father died in 2014 still owing $16,000.

Macomb County put the mortgage up for auction on Friday, but she's desperate to keep the home for her 14-year-old daughter.

"I promised her I would try to keep her here for school. All she wants to do is graduate with all of her friends. How am I going to do that if I'm going to get kicked out on the street? We have nowhere to go," Michelle said.

Hogue bought the house from her parents in 1990.

"In 1993, my husband lost his job and my parents were getting a divorce, so my father moved in with us," she said.

The name of Hogue's father, Theodore Westermann, was added to the deed and he refinanced to house to get a better rate.

"In 1994, my father had decided that he was going to take his name off," she said.

But four years later, he applied for a loan through Comerica. It was processed as a home equity loan, even though Westermann's name wasn't on the Petrie house deed, or any deed for that matter.

"I was dumbfounded and shocked, and so were my brothers, to find out that my dad had a home equity mortgage against my house. How could you?" Michelle said.

Comerica can't talk to FOX 2 because that would violate federal privacy laws, and:

"Nobody will talk to me because I'm not on the loan," she said.

Even though no one bid on Hogue's house, she only has six months to pay off her father's debt, which has now more than doubled with court costs, interest and late fees.

"I know in my heat that my dad did not mean for this to happen. He was not like that, he was studying to become a deacon in the church. He was very heavy into the church. He would not leave this kind of mess," she said.