OLYMPIA, Wash. – A historic home bought by rocker Courtney Love about eight years ago is up for public auction to satisfy debts in a foreclosure case, the Thurston County sheriff's office has announced.
Love, who was married to the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, purchased the gabled bungalow for his family in 1997 and now owes about $367,000, including the loan balance and legal fees, to WMC Mortgage Corp. of Los Angeles, which filed for foreclosure in Superior Court.
The house on 13 acres at the edge of Capitol Forest near Littlerock, about 10 miles south of Olympia, was built in 1903 and is currently occupied by Cobain's sister, Kim, sheriff's records show.
County sheriffs handle foreclosure auctions in Washington state.
According to documents filed with a lawsuit in October 2004, Love quit making mortgage payments in December 2003. The lawsuit identified Love as a trustee of the Courtney Love family trust.
The home was built by Thomas Bordeaux, who owned a lumber company that cut trees in the nearby Black Hills. It is one of the last remaining structures from the town of Bordeaux, which was demolished when the logging operation was shut down in 1941, and is included in a local historical inventory, county records show.
Love, 41, can retain ownership by satisfying the debt before the property goes to auction at the county courthouse on Jan. 6.
Besides the purchase price, anyone who buys the house at auction is responsible for back property taxes, most recently listed at about $7,800, sheriff's Sgt. Dan McLendon said this week.
"As of yet, we haven't received any inquiries," McLendon said.
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