Georgia courtroom revives lender’s safety deed after HOA service misstep

The affiliation then turned to licensed mail, counting on a Georgia statute that permits service on an LLC by mail when the registered agent can’t be reached with cheap diligence. Counsel for the affiliation stated the amended grievance was despatched by licensed mail, return receipt requested, on December 2, 2020. Sensible Enterprise by no means responded. In January 2022, the trial courtroom entered a default judgment, cleared the best way for foreclosures, and cancelled the lender’s safety deed. 

Greater than two years later, in August 2024, Sensible Enterprise requested the courtroom to set the judgment apart, saying it had by no means been served. The corporate’s registered agent submitted a sworn assertion that she by no means acquired the licensed mailing and solely not too long ago realized in regards to the lawsuit. The trial courtroom refused, and later dismissed the lender’s attraction after the listening to transcript was filed 12 days late. 

The appeals courtroom disagreed on each counts. A brief transcript delay, the courtroom stated, didn’t throw off the appellate calendar and was not grounds for dismissal. On the larger query, the courtroom discovered no actual proof that service was ever accomplished. There was no proof the lender acquired the mailing, no signed return receipt, and no postmark on the licensed mail receipt – solely what appeared to be a personal postage meter stamp, which isn’t the identical factor as an official mark from the put up workplace. 

With out a type of three items, the courtroom stated, service below the LLC statute merely was not perfected. That made the default judgment void, and a void judgment may be challenged at any time. The takeaway for mortgage lenders and servicers preserving tabs on HOA litigation is difficult to overlook: a lien can vanish in a default ruling, and skinny proof of service could also be all it takes to get it again.