After three years of wrangling, determination and convincing the government he no longer operated a title agency, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded Frank Chapman control of all government-owned foreclosed houses in Ohio and Michigan.

This means the Cleveland attorney will get the ability to sell the more than 18,000 homes that have filed for foreclosure. Ohio's foreclosure activity surged in April, up 39 percent from the previous month and up 135 percent from April 2006, pushing the state's foreclosure total to third largest in the nation, according to results from RealtyTrac. The state reported 11,431 foreclosure filings during the month, a foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 418 households ? 1.9 times the national average. Michigan, meanwhile, reported a total of 6,876 households in foreclosure during April, a foreclosure rate of one filing for every 614 households.

Chapman, 39, and his law firm, Chapman Law Firm, will get to bill the government an estimated $173.7 million over five years for his efforts to sell the homes.

Chapman jumped at the opportunity to handle the foreclosure sales because he already owned Lakeside Title and Escrow in Cleveland, which was under contract to process HUD closings.

That's what could create a potential conflict of interest, suggested the government and Greenleaf Construction Co., a competitor from Kansas City. Michaelson, Connor & Boul, a California-based company that previously did the Ohio foreclosure work, also jumped in the fray. The matter wound up repeatedly before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the Government Accountability Office.

In April, Chapman convinced the government that he had given his title company to a former associate. He said in 2006 that he accepted the loss ? about $7 million ? so he could get the HUD contract.

Chapman said he has hired 54 people so far for his office in Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. He expects to hire another 20 to work in Cleveland neighborhoods and 75 to work elsewhere in Ohio and Michigan.

HUD spokesman Lemar Wooley said that of 21 similar contracts solicited in 2003, most were awarded in 2004 and that this one was the only contract that took three years to award because of the repeated bid protests.

The homes will be available through Chapman Law Firm Real Estate Services? Web site, http://www.clfres.com/.

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