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| Wednesday, Jun 11 2008 7:32 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Jun 12 2008 7:13 AM
A foreclosure slamming the United Pentecostal Church of Taft has taught church leaders a painful lesson, said longtime pastor Rev. Leo J. Fisher.
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“Every pastor should have somebody professional” — a real estate attorney, for example — handle loans and real estate deals, he said Wednesday.
“We did not,” said Fisher, who has led the 60-member church since 1980.
The church building at 102 Fourth Ave. was foreclosed on May 30, county records recorded last week show.
Also foreclosed on was another church-owned property, the former Catholic Healthcare West hospital building at 111 W. Ash St.. The hospital shut its doors in September 2003; the church bought the property in 2006.
Both buildings were used as collateral for a $500,000 loan from a private lender in San Diego in 2006, loan documents show. Three members — Otis Caudle, Forrest Fisher and Tim Sheppard — signed for the loan, signature pages show.
The foreclosure filing recorded last Friday shows the church owed $564,001.07 at the time of the public auction.
The church also owes more than $24,000 in delinquent property taxes on the hospital property, county tax records show.
The church building, which United Pentecostal Church of Taft bought in 1990, is exempt from property taxes.
Fisher said church members hoped to convert the old hospital for use as a day care.
They bought the hospital from Catholic Healthcare West for $375,000, county records show.
The day the hospital purchase was recorded on June 2, 2006, the half-million-dollar loan from the San Diego lender was also recorded.
The market softened, Fisher said, and some church members left, taking monetary promises with them.
The church still owns an 8.5-acre patch of vacant land outside Taft, Fisher said.
If worse comes to worse, it can sell that property and buy a new church.
For the short term, Fisher plans to have the congregation continue meeting at the foreclosed Fourth Avenue site.
The church building should never have been used as collateral, Fisher said.
“Unless something changes real quick, we will lose it,” Fisher said.
He is close to nailing down a loan that would allow him to buy the foreclosed church back, he said.
Fisher said the property losses have not been finalized and the church still owns the hospital building. He said he has a potential buyer for the hospital.
But the lender, John R. Dunstan, said he owns both buildings after the repossession.
Foreclosure documents filed with the Kern County Recorder’s office list parcel numbers for both buildings as Dunstan’s.
“So what do I do with a church?” Dunstan said Wednesday. “I’ll probably have to sell both of ’em.”
Dunstan said United Pentecostal Church of Taft made payments for about three or four months before things began to sour.
Checks arrived with mismatched numeric and written amounts but couldn’t be cashed, Dunstan said. Then payments stopped altogether.
Fisher said even if the church building is lost, the congregation will continue.
“Yes it hurts and yes it was a hard deal,” he said. “But we’ve been around 30 years and we’re not leaving.”