88 Year-Old Minnie Fish Nearly Left Homeless After Nationstar Subsidiary Declares Her Dead

Nationstar Mortgage subsidiary Champion Mortgage claimed 88-year-old Minnie Fish of Tennessee was dead. She almost lost her home because of it.

Nationstar Mortgage’s reverse mortgage company, Champion Mortgage first started sending statements to Fish’s estate this summer, saying her loan was due because of her death.  It became so serious that last month the Nationstar subsidiary began threatening her estate with foreclosure. 

Ms. Fish told WJHL-TV, “Do I look dead to you? I’ll be 89 in January. I’m alive I think. Some people think I’m not, but I’m sitting here talking.”

Ms. Fish signed up for a reverse mortgage after her husband’s death because it allowed her to secure a loan to pay her bills using her home as collateral. As in all reverse mortgages, the terms stipulated when she eventually dies the company would get to sell her property.

Not only did Nationstar Mortgage make her worry she was going to lose her house, Ms. Fish says she also no longer had access to her loan, so she couldn’t pay her bills or taxes.

Her daughter Dot Sexton told WJHL-TV, “It’s infuriating that my mom or any other person would have to go through this kind of ordeal. It may sound trivial to some people, but it is not.”

Nationstar Backs Down After Media Pressure

When the WJHL contacted Nationstar Mortgage, they were told Ms. Fish no longer has anything to worry about. The company chalked up the situation to an incorrect death report.

“We have been working with Ms. Fish over the last few months to resolve this issue, and as of Nov. 30 we received the final documentation required to correct her file. We certainly feel for Ms. Fish in this unfortunate circumstance, and now that we have received the final required documentation as of Nov. 30 her file has been moved back to active.”

When told of what Nationstar told WJHL, Ms. Fish says the company never told her the situation was resolved.

“I didn’t hear from them last Monday. We gave them all the information we asked for and they never really worked with us with anything. Just thank God it’s over…That’s lifted off of me. They’re going to bring me back to life,” she joked. “Reincarnation. In my home for Christmas and New Years and hopefully several years after that.”