VANCOUVER - A B.C. Supreme Court judge has granted an 89-year-old widow an order allowing her to stay in her West Vancouver home for now because there is some evidence she was the victim of "an unconscionable mortgage."

But the lender, Astina Mortgages Group, says there is nothing untoward about the mortgage, and denies the company took advantage of the woman.

Donna Mae Galpin has lived in the home since 1954, when her parents built the house, and she inherited it from them in 1986. After her husband died in 2010, she took out a reverse mortgage to help out her daughter and two grandchildren, who live with her, according to the court ruling.

In 2009, she met a man named Timothy Langenberg who started out by helping her around the house, and even called her “mom,” according to court documents. In 2010, he approached her about investing in a real estate development project he was starting in Gibsons, B.C. According to the court judgment, “he promised Ms. Galpin that if she invested money from her reverse mortgage she would never have to worry about money again.”

Although Langenberg made her a partner in the business he set up, Salish Sea Environmental Enterprises, Galpin had no previous business experience and did not make any decisions for the business, according to the court judgment. Her sole involvement in the business was to provide capital.

Over the next few years, Langenberg persuaded Galpin to invest more and more money in the business, and by 2016 she had two mortgages -- one to TD Bank and another to Reliable Mortgage Investment Corp. -- for a total of $2.6 million. Both were in default.

Then, Langenberg arranged for a third, short-term mortgage with a lender called Astina for $3.2 million. Monthly payments would be $24,562 for the first 12 months and $32,750 for the remaining three months of the 15-month mortgage. Galpin didn't recieve any of the loaned money, according to the judgment: instead it went to pay the first two mortgages and to Langenberg's company.

Galpin makes $3,000 a month from several pensions, and said Astina never contacted her to ask for information about her ability to make the payments, according to the court judgment.

In March 2018, Astina sent letters to Galpin and Salish Sea Enterprises telling them that the mortgage was in arrears and the lender would start to foreclose on the house. Langenberg continued to tell Galpin not to worry and that he would take care of the mortgage arrears, according to the court judgment.

Astina listed Galpin’s house with a realtor on April 3, 2019, and the realtor got an offer for $2 million. But Astina rejected that offer, and instead bought the house itself for $2.7 million, according to the court judgment. On July 22, Astina transferred the property to itself.

In court, Galpin alleged that Astina’s “sole purpose” was to “collect an excessive lender fee, collect the interest, then take her property.”

In response, Astina Mortgage Group said they did not take advantage of Galpin. The company said the mortgage they gave to Galpin saved her from foreclosure of the two previous mortgages, and they argued Galpin was able to pay the hefty monthly mortgage payments because she could have sold her home.

In court documents, Astina claimed Galpin’s home was assessed at $4 million when they granted her the mortgage, although BC Assessment records show the home, at 1124 Haywood Dr., has never been assessed for more than $3.14 million. Like many properties in West Vancouver, the value of the home has dropped dramatically since 2017. It’s currently worth $2.7 million, but Galpin owes Astina more than $3.4 million.

On Oct. 22, Justice Catherine Murray ordered that Galpin could continue to stay in her home while litigation proceeds, because there is “some evidence” the lender took advantage of an elderly woman and did not do due diligence to check that she had the means to pay the monthly mortgage payments. Murray also said the fact that Astina bought Galpin’s house after it had been on the market for only three months “raises concern.”