Condo owners still paying on boarded up homes

PAINESVILLE -- Jerry and Ginny Hobson lost nearly everything when the Millstone Condominiums flooded last July.

The Grand River reached their second floor windows before receding.

Nine months later, the couple is renting an apartment and making payments on the condo that they can't live in.

They're not alone. 80 condos in all, including the Gristmill condominiums, were destroyed by the flooding. Some residents mistakenly thought the condominium association's flood insurance covered their home and belongings.

"That's my understanding, the mortgage companies are still demanding payments," said Douglas Elliott, Jr., Painesville assistant city manager. "They gave them some grace periods, one, two or three months, maybe. But at the end of that period, they (condo owners) needed to come current on their mortgage payments," Elliott said.

The Hobsons are hoping that the city of Painesville will come up with the grant money to buy their condominium so they can use the equity to start looking for another home. Elliott and other city officals are working to secure federal, state and local grants to come up with the eight million dollars needed to purchase, and demolish the condos and turn the property into a park. That process could several more months with no guarentee of complete funding.

"The waiting is difficult," Jerry Hobson said. "And it taken forever, it seems."

Since the flood, Hobson said he's received several letters from his mortgage company about his condo.

"They sent us a letter twice saying that our flood insurance had expired," Hobson said. "And that they were going to go buy it on our behalf, if we don't."