Homeownership Rights

Safe shelter is essential to health, safety and independence. Protecting and preserving the homes of senior homeowners also helps to retain the vibrancy of our intergenerational neighborhoods. SeniorLAW Center’s Homeownersship Rights team provides seniors with mortgage foreclosure assistance and mortgage modification, we correct deed and title problems, we administer estates of deceased owners and transfer the deed to the senior residing in the property, we resolve property tax delinquencies and we work to protect seniors from unscrupulous home repair contractors.

• Our work is critically needed since the majority of Philadelphia seniors – even those who are low-income — own their own homes. Approximately 117,000 homes in Philadelphia are owned by adults age 65 and over, and many of these homeowners live alone on fixed incomes consisting primarily of social security.
• We serve senior homeowners 60 and older in Philadelphia who seek to save and maintain their homes, where they have often lived for decades.

HOW WE HELP:

• We save seniors’ homes by negotiating mortgage modifications that are affordable and by representing senior homeowners facing mortgage and reverse mortgage foreclosure.
• We conduct a Property Tax Assistance Assessment for every client making sure each homeowner is enrolled in all available tax saving programs.
• We fight contractor fraud, suing home repair contractors who run away with our clients’ money without performing the repairs, or who performed shoddy repairs. We provide information about free home repairs.
• We probate estates and transfer deeds in order to make seniors the record owner of their home and qualify them for city repair and property tax assistance programs.
• We go into the communities where seniors live to educate about reverse mortgages, to caution homeowners about scams to buy their home for cash, to give tips on how to protect themselves when they hire a home repair contractor and why having a will is important.
• We educate seniors about tax programs available to them to help reduce and/or keep their property taxes down and help others get into affordable payment agreements for their taxes.