Third Party Mortgage Satisfaction Fraud

When Two Innocents Are the Victims of a Third Party’s Fraudulent Mortgage Satisfaction

In a recent unpublished opinion (Deutsche Bank v. Ferguson), the North Carolina Court of Appeals weighed in on the following question:  Who prevails when a scammer fraudulently cancels a deed of trust—the innocent lender whose deed of trust was canceled without its knowledge or the innocent bona fide purchaser who purchased the real estate for value?  

U.S. Bank NA v. Pinkney

North Carolina’s Supreme Court Delineates Crucial Differences Between Power of Sale Foreclosures and Judicial Foreclosures

A non-judicial foreclosure by power of sale is the more common, stream-lined method to foreclose a deed of trust in North Carolina. To allow a sale in a non-judicial foreclosure, the court must find the existence of only six factors. One of those six findings is whether there exists a “valid debt of which the party seeking to foreclose is the holder.”N.C. Gen. Stat. §45-21.16(d) (emphasis added).

Two Simultaneous Foreclosures and Addresses of Record

A Tale of Two (Simultaneous) Foreclosures and the Importance of Being Locatable (With Apologies and Deference to Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde)

Every so often, a North Carolina appellate court will issue an opinion that is useful to the mortgage servicing industry not so much for its substantive holding but for the practical guidance that may be gleaned from its dicta.  One such case is In re: Foreclosure of Real Property Under Deed of Trust From Garrett, 795 S.E.2d 1 (N.C. Ct. App. 2016) which involved the following relevant facts:  

Adams Decision: Non-Judicial Foreclosures in NC

In a recent opinion, the NC Court of Appeals in In the Matter of the Foreclosure of a Deed of Trust executed by Adams affirmed the trial court’s order permitting foreclosure despite the homeowner’s assertion that the petitioner failed to give proper notice of the foreclosure proceeding or establish that it was the holder of the debt.  The relevant facts of Adams are as follows: