No Foreclosure If No Default Notice Received

The banks mailing error, was enough for a jury to side with the homeowner and stop a foreclosure.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the homeowner over Deutsche Bank in a foreclosure case over the notice of default. The property that the bank was trying to recover is in Port St. Lucie, one of the cities hit the hardest by the housing bubble; however, the hay the broke the camel’s back came from the mailing address which the notice of default was sent to. The homeowner’s attorney argued that the bank did not send the notice of default to the property address as stated on the terms of the mortgage, thus violating it but instead sent the notice of default to a PO Box.

Although the property was unoccupied at the time, the appeals court agreed that there was a violation of contract and has asked the case to be moved to the trial court for dismissal for prejudice for noncompliance with the mortgage’s acceleration. Fourth District Judges Carole Taylor, Robert Gross, and Spencer Levine all sided with the homeowner in an unsigned opinion. The homeowner’s other defense, the argument that the bank presented a backdated mortgage assignment and did not prove standing to foreclose, was not addressed.

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