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Statesville homeowners to wait 2 months for decision on foreclosure

STATESVILLE, N.C. — Just two days before Thanksgiving more than a dozen Statesville homeowners found out they'll have to wait another two months to find out if they'll lose their homes to foreclosure.

In August the families received a letter saying they'd have to pay $4.6 million or face foreclosure. The debt was for an unpaid construction loan from nearly 10 years ago.

"You maintain this property for five to six years and then this comes out of the woodwork that we could lose it all," said Lynn Zanotti.

According to the plaintiff, the man who issued the loan to the developer had a provision in the loan documents saying that any piece of property that was sold from Fox Den would require his release. Attorneys for his estate said the homes were not released.

On Tuesday Zanotti and the families attended a long awaited foreclosure hearing. Rather than making a decision on the foreclosure, a judge continued the hearing another two months because it was revealed in court that one land owner in Fox Den never received a notice of foreclosure.

Valarie Fogle and others were upset -- they had hoped to get the matter behind them. They wanted a judge to step in and defend them.

"Have the parties that are responsible for this matter to sit down and resolve it," she said.

She and others will now have to wait until Jan. 29 for the next hearing. If their attorney has to appeal the judge's decision, they said they could be in court for years.

"The next two years out of our lives ... it's stressful," she said.

Attorneys for the homeowners and the plaintiff declined to comment Tuesday.

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