Woman Loses Home Over $68 Dental Bill

No Refuge in Bankruptcy

According to the appeals court decision, Jarmaccc Properties served Ramos, then Sonya Bangerter, with a notice instructing her to move out of her home in May 1998.

Ramos said she never received that notice either.

That same year, Ramos said that on the advice of a previous attorney, she filed for bankruptcy in an effort to reclaim her property.

On that lawyer's suggestion, Ramos said she structured a bankruptcy settlement that would allow her to regain the title to the house after she paid to Jarmaccc the $1,550 the company paid to buy the property.

But Ramos said that after she paid the company, it still would not relinquish ownership of the home.

Ralph Petty of Jarmaccc Properties did not return several calls to his office.

In 2004, Ramos went to court again and attempted to put her name back on the home title. The court ruled in her favor, but Jarmaccc appealed. The Utah Court of Appeals ruled this month that Ramos could not dispute Jarmaccc's title claim because the statute of limitations had expired.

Ramos said she will appeal to the state's supreme court in hopes of winning the house back once and for all.

If she does not regain ownership, it is unclear whether Ramos would have any legal claim to the tens of thousands of dollars spent on mortgage payments while the home was owned by Jarmaccc.

Such cases are rare, but Utah lawyer Meade noted that while a person in Ramos's situation may have been making mortgage payments, the holder of the home's title could argue that it also permitted her to live rent-free, further muddying any claim she might have.

A Silver Lining?

In the meantime, Ramos, who divorced her first husband in 1999, continues to live in the house with her two youngest children and her second husband.

She has continued making mortgage payments and says she only has about $9,000 remaining to pay off the initial loan from the city.

For the last year, Ramos has been working as a home loan officer after taking part in a training program and earning a mortgage lender agent's license from the state.

"I love it because I honestly feel like I have helped a lot of people," she said.

But Ramos said that her newfound avocation isn't the silver lining to her housing nightmare.

"The silver lining," she said, "will be if I get the house."