Bergen County Chancery Judge Hits Mortgage Lender With $26,000 in Counsel Fees For Violating New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act
In an unpublished decision issued on July 31, 2014, a Bergen County Chancery Judge fined a mortgage lender over $26,000 in legal fees for violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act in connection with a residential loan refinance involving a then 70-year old woman residing in Englewood, New Jersey. Freedom Mortgage Corp. v. Mamie E. Major, Superi...
Mortgage Lender Hit with $54,000 Legal Fee in Doomed Foreclosure Case
In a stunning reversal of fortune, HSBC Bank was ordered to pay over $54,000 in legal fees incurred by homeowners who successfully fended off a foreclosure suit based on HSBC's inability to prove ownership of the underlying mortgage and note. HSBC Bank vs. Nini, A-1941-11T1 (App. Div. , Unpublished, April 30, 2014).
According to the Appellate ...
Voiding a New Jersey Real Estate Tax Foreclosure Judgment Due to Defective Service of Legal Process
In New Jersey, a homeowner can lose his or her home for failure to pay real estate taxes to the town/city where the property is located. Unlike mortgage foreclosure cases where the property is required to go to a judicial sale and the homeowner is given one final shot to save the home by "redeeming" or paying off the judgment within 10 days from t...
Real Estate Tax Foreclosure – Does a Tax Sale Certificate Holder Have an Indefinite Time Period to File Foreclosure?
The idea for this post came from a recent client inquiry that we received about filing a tax foreclosure suit on behalf of an individual who has held a tax sale certificate for approximately 27 years against the home of her deceased parents, and paid the real estate taxes during all 27 years.
Every New Jersey municipality is authorized by statute ...