By Jessica Vander Velde, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, September 30, 2010
TAMPA — Sharon Salyer, 38, has four months to save the farm.
At a court hearing Thursday morning, her attorney didn't contest a foreclosure filed by the lender, Farm Credit of Central Florida. But they were pleased to get the maximum amount of time — 120 days — before the bank can sell the farm.
Over the next four months, Salyer and her husband hope to find investors to pay off the nearly $620,000 owed.
When Salyer was 7, a medical mistake stole her vision. A settlement with the hospital guaranteed her $7,000 monthly annuity payments for life.
Salyer agreed to help her father buy the farmland in 1990 with the understanding her name would also be on the title. It wasn't.
Last year, a judge ordered her parents to turn over a half-interest in the farm. During the legal battle, her parents stopped paying on the loan.
Now she has to fight for the farm again.
The judge set the foreclosure date for 120 days, the maximum time she could give. Most foreclosure dates are set 30 days out, said the Salyers' attorney, Michael McDermott.
"I'm very pleased to hear what the judge came up with," Sharon Salyer said.
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