Central Florida Judge Voids Foreclosure Sale, Allowing Homeowner Victimized By Sewer Service To Recover Title To Home

In Sarasota, Florida, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reports:

• William Berta could be among the most findable people in the world. The 70-year-old has lived in his Sarasota home for decades. He runs a business on 12th Street, has a pilot's license, collects Veterans Affairs benefits, and recently got a traffic ticket here. His home has cars in the driveway, the water and power are on, and he says his two dogs bark at anyone who knocks on the door of the home he shares with his son.

• Yet the bank foreclosing on his five-acre property told a judge that Berta had abandoned the home, could not be found and might even be dead. That declaration allowed Wells Fargo Bank to take possession of Berta's home in December without him ever knowing that a foreclosure case had been filed, and he had no chance to raise a defense. "They didn't want to find me," Berta said. "They tried to use their knowledge of the law to steal my house."

• As foreclosures continue to overwhelm the court system, there is a growing concern that sloppy and careless work in foreclosure cases is making Berta's experience a common one. The kicker in Berta's case: A process server had no trouble serving him with eviction papers after taking the deed to his property, right at the home the bank previously said he had abandoned. Berta immediately called an attorney. Sarasota attorney Martin Burzynski, whose firm now represents Berta, said his firm is seeing cases that he considers "borderline fraud."(1)

For more, see An abrupt eviction, narrowly averted.

For more on the "sewer service" problem, see: MFY Legal Services: Justice Disserved (documents problem of improper service of process in debt collection lawsuits that have led to judgments entered against unknowing victims).

(1) Reportedly, Berta's attorney found a number of problems with the foreclosure action, the biggest was that the firm only tried to serve him once, at his home, at 3:30 p.m. on a Monday in June. In addition, the bank's attorney filed an affidavit that stated they could not determine Berta's:

• Social Security number (which would be on the original mortgage papers),
• marital status (a simple public records search shows his divorce), or
• whether he owned vehicles or boats (state records clearly show he owns two cars, a boat and a plane).

But based on that abandonment affidavit, a judge gave Wells Fargo a summary judgment against Berta, according to the story. The quick case meant the bank's attorney spent as little time and money as possible on a foreclosure case, as compared to when a homeowner puts up a vigorous legal fight, the story states. Most notably, the affidavit allowed the firm to skip local rules that would have required them to meet with Berta, because the property is homesteaded.

The judge set aside the foreclosure sale without a typical hearing, awarded Berta attorney's fees, and has left the bank with having to start over again, the story states.