Village Green Nursery’s Vera Johnson has a date with the bank

… and no, it’s NOT the kind of date she’s trying to fight off. We’ve been reporting on Vera Johnson‘s fight to keep Bank of America from foreclosing on her home and Village Green Perennial Nursery business west of White Center – and tomorrow, she’s going downtown for a face-to-face meeting with a Bank of America manager. She has a list of questions for that rep – questions she’s been trying to get the bank to answer for a long time. And she also has another list – thousands of names of people who have signed the online petition she started at Change.org when she first went public with her plight four weeks ago. (Here’s our original story.)

As of our last check, that list stood at almost 9,600 – if you haven’t signed it yet, you might consider doing so if you support her cause, as she’s close to the 10,000 milestone; find it here. Vera also is continuing on her quest to help others get information to help them in similar fights. Most importantly, she says, insist on a face-to-face meeting with somebody at your bank – exactly what she is doing now. In a support-group meeting she hosted with a legal expert a week ago, other points of advice included getting media attention – “make it loud” – and, don’t keep your personal bank accounts in the same bank as your mortgage. Plus, fight every step of the way – fight the foreclosure, fight any attempt to be evicted. And keep an eye on the online records involving your property; be sure you know the parcel number – which you can get through the county’s online parcel finder – and search the records to see what is filed regarding it, just to make sure there’s not something going on that you haven’t heard about.

10 Replies to "Village Green Nursery's Vera Johnson has a date with the bank"

  • DP August 8, 2011 (8:24 pm)

    You go, girl!! You demanded a meeting with a human being at the bank. Yeah!

  • miws August 8, 2011 (9:44 pm)

    Best of luck to you, Vera!

    .

    Mike

  • Lanie August 8, 2011 (9:54 pm)

    Thanks for reporting this. I love VGPN it’s a great resource to our neighborhood. Good luck Vera!

  • Jsv August 8, 2011 (10:15 pm)

    Good luck Vera!! Give ’em hell.

  • hmmm August 9, 2011 (1:38 am)

    10,000 !!! YOU GO GIRL

  • Bettytheyeti August 9, 2011 (9:56 am)

    The Force be with you Vera.

  • charlabob August 9, 2011 (12:11 pm)

    Thanks to the community for supporting Vera and to Vera for going so public with this. You’d be surprised how many people can’t even find the human face (or institution) attached to their mortgage — a remnant of the selling/reselling/bundling that led to the original mortgage debacle. I’ve actually known folks in the midwest who have lost their homes before they could find out who to appeal to. (Did some pro bono counseling when the shingles first hit the fan in 2007.)

    And, of course, thanks to WSB for their usual continued thorough coverage and to WS for their support.

  • Tony August 9, 2011 (7:30 pm)

    I have been a B of A customer for 20 years and have had a mortgage with them for 7. I had been thinking of refinancing elsewhere for a while and this story was enough to finally get me moving. I even moved my checking and savings to boot. I know it’s a drop in the bucket to them but I’m very glad to have finally taken my business to some local banks. Good luck Vera!

  • westseattledood August 9, 2011 (8:24 pm)

    King5 picked up the story.

    • WSB August 9, 2011 (8:47 pm)

      Yeah, the media invite went out far and wide. We were there this morning and our story will be up later.

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