Is someone else living in your house?

Service of Process and Void Judgments

Every so often, we get a call:

“I didn’t even know I was in foreclosure!”

It seems strange, but some people lose their homes to foreclosure even though they never learn of the lawsuit. The court case rolls on without them, the court enters judgment and holds a sale—and in the worst cases, someone else buys the home and moves in.

How could this happen?

Usually, this is a the result of some kind of defect in the service of process, meaning that the very first notice of the lawsuit never gets delivered to the right person. And because the first notice was never given, the homeowner never gets any of the papers from the rest of the court case.

At Ricardo & Wasylik, we’ve handled a number of these types of claims. Typically, it’s for a homeowner who was away for some length of time (maybe on a long trip, or an out-of-town job posting) or for someone who lost a second home to foreclosure. And when they come home, they find someone else living in their house.

But there is a bright side—the service of process has to follow strict rules or it’s no good. So if a process server made a mistake (or even worse, didn’t even try to get it right) you have a chance to get the sale set aside, and take back your home. Or, if you’d rather walk away, in many case we can get the bank to write a check to you for the house. That’s right—the bank might pay you if they took your home away without notice.

If you lost your home to foreclosure, and never knew about the foreclosure suit, you might have the right to claim money or get your house back. We might be able to help. Please contact us to set up a time to discuss your case with one of our attorneys.

We’ve posted a video on our web page where we discuss this topic. Click here to watch the video.

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