Title can make it harder for Detroiters to avoid home foreclosure

Tenai Leali wants to pass down her grandparents’ home — the one she’s living in now — to her own children. 

The three-bedroom bungalow on the west side of Detroit is full of family memories, like opening up gifts at midnight on Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners that continue to this day. When her grandmother died a few years ago, Leali decided to stay in the home. 

But after losing her job in 2014, Leali fell behind on the home’s property taxes. In 2020, when she tried to apply for programs to help with home repairs and paying off property back taxes, she realized that the house needed to be in her name. The fact that the house is still in Leali’s grandfather’s name disqualifies her from most of those programs. The home is in the probate process and the title hasn’t yet been transferred to Leali.

Leali, a single mom of three, doesn’t want to lose her home. Rent prices are high right now, she said.

“I’ve been stressed out trying to figure this out because the last thing you want to do is be homeless with your children,” Leali, 47, said. 

It’s unclear how many Detroiters are living in homes involved in what some called “tangled titles.” But it’s an issue that foreclosure prevention experts that focus on the city often come across. They say there needs to be more education on how to navigate the process. Title problems can prevent people from getting into assistance programs that help pay for home repairs or back property taxes. When a title doesn’t transfer within a family, it can be a barrier for families building generational wealth through their homes.