Cozen O’Connor attorneys Dan Luccaro and Paul Bartolacci successfully pursued a home repair contractor who misrepresented that he had performed home repairs and ran off with $10,000 from two unsuspecting, elderly homeowners. The Southwest Philadelphia couple was told a new roof was installed on their home but the Cozen attorneys found that the roof had been simply coated with a sealing compound. And that wasn’t the only fraud this couple suffered. The contractor convinced them to pay for their “new” roof with money from a reverse mortgage. The contractor introduced the homeowners to a mortgage broker who told them how they could use the equity in their home to pay for the roof without having to pay the money back until they died or sold the home. After the deal was done, the Cozen attorneys took a look at the mortgage documents. They discovered that $2500 which should have gone to the homeowners had instead disappeared into the pockets of the mortgage broker! Thanks to the dogged efforts of these two fine Cozen attorneys, this elderly couple received a check for $12,500, giving them the money needed to replace their roof with cash leftover.
We are grateful to these excellent attorneys and their firm for their zealous pro bono advocacy which made a powerful impact indeed on the lives of Philadelphia seniors. For more information about volunteering with SeniorLAW Center’s Homeowners Assistance Program or its many other programs serving seniors in need, please contact Elizabeth Shay, Esq. bshay@seniorlawcenter.org or Wendy Bookler, Esq. wbookler@seniorlawcenter.org.