Five years ago, a city — owed tens of thousands in unpaid property taxes — took control of the property in a foreclosure that Nancy Stamler called home since the early 1980s.
Now, the city of Middletown is ready to sell the property to the highest bidder in an auction that includes a 1743 Colonial, about 2 acres of land and one more thing: the occupant.
Stamler is still living in the house on Dripps Road.
The auction ends with Monday’s bidding deadline and is unusual because typically in a foreclosure the former owners would have been removed from the property soon after losing title to it.
“If this was an apartment building or commercial building that is designed to generate operating income tenants are typically left in place, but for a former homeowner without a lease it would be unusual in a case like this,” Kevin McEleney, a real estate attorney at Updike, Kelly & Spellacy in Hartford, said. McEleney is not involved in the matter.
Stamler said she sees the auction as a way for the city to rid itself of an uncomfortable situation that would mean turning out a 77-year-old woman — and heart transplant survivor — who has little money or the means to find another place to live.
“They don’t want to take the responsibility,” Stamler said. “They’re going to put it on the new owner to deal with, right?”
Not so, says the city. The Dripps Road property will come up for auction at the same time as 3-family property that also was foreclosed on for unpaid taxes. Both had to be treated the same, the city said. The two properties, however, are vastly different because the former owner of the 3-family house is no longer involved.
“It is an unfortunate situation,” Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim said, of the Dripps Road property.
“The goal of the city for a number of years dating back to my predecessor’s administration has been to recoup the delinquent taxes owed on this property without separating the resident from her home,” he said. “The city certainly does not want to see her become homeless.”
Stamler was allowed to remain in the house because the foreclosure followed closely on pandemic-era restrictions that suspended evictions, the city said. The foreclosure also was tied up in a court appeal, according to court records.
Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim in a 2019 file photo.
Florsheim said the city tried to work out a resolution with Stamler.
One option was selling the house back to Stamler for the amount of taxes that hadn’t been paid, with the stipulation that future real estate taxes be paid on time. That would allow Stamler to put the house on the market — something Stamler said she long knew she had to do, even though she did not want to move — because of declining health and worsening household finances.
But it was clear, the city said that Stamler could not afford it.
Florsheim said the city hopes a new owner can work out an arrangement with Stamler. If that doesn’t happen, the city can connect Stamler with community organizations that can help her find housing.
What the city cannot do is simply hand the property back to Stamler, Florsheim said. Such a decision would set a precedent for other residents not paying their taxes and then getting their property back after a foreclosure by the city, Florsheim said.
Stamler has not paid rent since the city took control of the property. The city could not immediately provide a full tally of property taxes that had gone unpaid.
‘Used to be so beautiful’
The auction is the latest development in a long-running dispute between Stamler and the city about zoning issues on her street that go back to the 1990s involving a neighboring construction company. She stopped paying taxes in the mid-2000s to protest what she claims was the city’s lack of responsiveness to her concerns. Later, Stamler said, she simply couldn’t afford them.
The city initiated a tax foreclosure in 2014.
On a recent morning, Stamler walked in the yard of her home on the relatively obscure, gravel-paved street, a turn off Saybrook Road.
A small swath of grass is all that remains of a yard where Stamler said she once entertained friends. Tree sapplings have taken over, some reaching the second floor of her house. Invasive vines wrap around an outdoor patio with a grill and chairs that is now almost completely obscured. The bittersweet is so thick that when Stamler ventures into them, she needs the help of a visitor to avoid tripping when she steps back out.
“I’m so embarrassed by how the grounds look,” Stamler said. “They used to be so beautiful.”
Stamler declines to allow the visitors inside the house. There is visible rot on portions of the exterior siding and at least one window’s muntins and glass panes are broken.
The city could not immediately say why the property has not been better maintained since it came under its ownership.
Stamler said she was told repeatedly by real estate agents that the visibility of the construction company and its activities would make it tough to sell her home. Eventually, screening in the form of fences and shrubs was added, but by then her health had deteriorated, ultimately necessitating a heart transplant in 2014 and a lengthy recovery.
Stamler said she lives on a fixed income, but her car was repossessed so she can’t easily travel where she might need to go. The one thing that has kept her going is the idea of getting the house back, selling it and moving on with her life.
“My life has been on hold for years,” Stamler said. “I don’t even feel like I’m alive. I don’t see people. I don’t have a car. I mean, I’ve had to build a whole new life, a very solitary life.”
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at [email protected].
