The Law Office of J. Patrick Sutton
mortgage statute of limitations

The Borrower Always Loses

As of late 2021, I now believe that the courts are so hostile to mortgage and home equity loan borrowers that it has become almost impossible to prevail on even the strongest claims. It has gotten to the point that the federal courts in Texas now do not allow a homeowner to challenge an invalid mortgage lien unless the homeowner pays off the entire loan before bringing the challenge. Thus, even if a lien is plainly not valid under the Texas Constitution, a homeowner cannot maintain a lawsuit in federal court to clear the lien without paying off the whole loan! I believe that is flatly wrong under the law as well as punitive, but the fact that the courts would erect such a roadblock tells me that these cases are becoming all but impossible to win. The score: Banks 100, Borrowers 1 (I did win the Landers v. Nationstar case a few years ago, invalidating a mortgage lien on statute of limitations grounds, which seemed promising at the time but which has since been whittled away by other kinds of bank liens). Content may continue . . .
The Law Office of J. Patrick Sutton