Judicial Foreclosure Sale Requires Notice of Sale to All Interest Holders

The Court of Appeals held in a 2019 case that any party with a lien or property interest is entitled to specific notice of the foreclosure sale in addition to the published notice, and in addition to any general notice by being a party to the judicial foreclosure lawsuit.

In Georgia Home Appraisers, Inc. v. Trintec Portfolio Services, LLC, 349 Ga.App. 356 (2019), the Court of Appeals analyzed a situation in which a judicial foreclosure occurred based upon a tax deed superlien. However the principles are the same for all judicial foreclosures.

A party whose interest was purported foreclosed challenged the sale for lack of notice. Indeed, most parties had not been served with the Final Order in the case at all.

The Court of Appeals agreed the sale was improper, and reasoned that that all parties “needed notice of the foreclosure sale to give them an opportunity to protect those rights. Specifically, those parties needed to be given the opportunity to purchase the Property at the foreclosure sale to protect their own junior interest in that asset.” Georgia Home Appraisers, Inc. v. Trintec Portfolio Servs., LLC, 349 Ga. App. 356, 360, 825 S.E.2d 833, 837 (2019).

As a practice pointer, it is observed that the plaintiff should consider avoiding such arguments by serving defendants with a copy of all relevant orders themselves, and file a Certificate of Service, instead of relying upon the Court or the efiling system to accomplish service.

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