Arizona man bought a $475,000 home to retire, but lost it after falling $977 behind on HOA dues; it later sold for $8,172

Toby Newton bought his four-bedroom Mesa, Arizona home for $475,000 in 2022, planning to spend retirement there with his longtime girlfriend, Sherrie Patten. But after losing his job and being diagnosed with diabetes in 2024, he fell behind on his homeowners association dues, owing just $977, the New York Post reported. When the HOA rejected his repeated payment-plan offers and foreclosed on the home instead, Newton lost the house, which sold at auction for only $8,172.How Toby Newton fell $977 behind on his HOA duesNewton closed on his home in Superstition Springs, a community in East Mesa, in August 2022, intending to retire there. Everything changed in early 2024, when he lost his sales job and was diagnosed with a fast-moving form of diabetes. His longtime girlfriend, Sherrie Patten, who lives with him, was also battling breast cancer at the same time, he told Fox News Digital. With household income gone and medical bills mounting, Newton fell roughly a year and a half behind on his HOA's quarterly assessments of about $170. By the time he tried to catch up, the unpaid dues and interest totalled $977.Toby Newton's payment plan offers to the HOA were repeatedly rejectedNewton told the Mesa Tribune he reached out to his HOA in 2024 to set up a payment plan, first offering $50 a month toward the debt. That offer was denied, so he countered with $133.70 a month, and later with $200 a month on top of his regular dues. Email records reviewed by the Tribune show the board rejected each proposal, first in January 2025 and again in April, and told him to deal directly with its attorney, Augustus Shaw IV.The $977 HOA debt ballooned toward $10,000 in fees during foreclosureBy November 2024, the HOA had already begun foreclosure proceedings, and in May 2025 it moved to file for judgment. A default judgment for foreclosure was entered on June 30, 2025. As the case dragged on, Newton's debt ballooned from $977 to nearly $10,000, almost all of it attorney's fees and court costs. The HOA later offered to extend his redemption period to May 15, 2026, but by then the redemption fee had climbed to $10,484. "I don't know how it could go from owing them $977 to $10,000," Newton told the Tribune, calling the jump impossible to understand.Toby Newton's $475,000 home was sold at auction for just $8,172The home was sold at public auction in November 2025 for just $8,172, far below its $475,000 purchase price. Newton told Fox News Digital he wasn't informed of the auction until two days beforehand, and that he later confronted the HOA board at a meeting to ask why his payment offers were denied, only to be removed by Shaw. He remains in the house and has filed for an emergency stay, and a GoFundMe campaign set up on his behalf has raised over $15,000 toward its $18,000 goal; Newton says he has no plans to leave.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.