Actually it probably happens hundreds, perhaps thousands of times a week across the state. A hapless but hopeful homeowner is working with his lender (or someone he thinks is his lender), thinking that he is on the verge of a mortgage modification, when behind the scenes, the lender has convinced a judge to grant foreclosure and his home is sold.
There are remedies when this happens, but you’ve got to act quickly. Hopefully you can catch this within ten days after the foreclosure sale. Even if you don’t remember judgments are void or voidable if there is fraud or mistake in the files…and there is quite a bit of fraud and mistake in most foreclosure files.
Remember to challenge the sale and attack the judgment. Read the case below, Elliott v. Aurora for an example of the facts that the court will consider….you might consider contacting the Plaintiff’s attorney but good luck getting through to someone and in my experience, you will not get their attention until you have pled out a very good case with compelling facts and good case law.
As more counties adopt their foreclosure mediation programs, I’m concerned there will be more default judgments and sales as the homeowner is distracted by the mediation and does not respond to the lawsuit. After meeting with those who will be running the mediation program here in Pinellas County, Mediation Managers, Inc., I’m hopeful that this will not be a major problem here in our county. I’m convinced those running our program will be working hard to prevent errors and mistakes that will lead to false judgments.
