Wrong end of the foreclosure process! Looking for advice.

[Blair Nye]

I'm an out of state investor living in Tacoma, WA. I own a property in Fayetteville, NC that I bought in January of 2021 and have never missed a payment on. When my PM visited the property this morning they found foreclosure documents there, with a scheduled court hearing date of December 5th, 2022. Apparently three owners back the owner did a quit claim deed to an LLC. This was in 2013. That owner is now being pursued by Rocket Mortgage for $58,000. And since Rocket Mortgage doesn't appear to have gotten ahold of him, they are now coming after the property.

When I bought this property, we went through all the standard paperwork, including title insurance and a title search. No red flags came up and we had a smooth closing. I had a local agent representing me and we closed through a local law firm that handles a high volume of real estate transactions. 

The same law firm that handled the closing AND the title search is now looking into this issue for me. I have a lot of questions, but these are my top 3. Any insight is appreciated!

1) Should I speak to another attorney about this?

2) Has anyone ever been on the wrong end of a foreclosure and successfully fought it? If so, what did you ?

3) What would you do if you were in my shoes? 

[Todd Rasmussen]

@Blair Nye

Call title insurance and file a claim, hire a different lawyer to appear in court for you on Dec 5th (may or may not be provided through title insurance), call rocket mortgage and tell them you purchased the property with a warranty deed and title insurance in January of 21 and give them the contact information for the title insurance company. I'd fly to the Dec 5th hearing to be present as well. The lawyer that handled the closing for you is not your friend and should not represent you in court. In this situation their and your own interest might conflict. Also, give rocket mortgage your mailing address for any correspondence they have moving forward. I would also set up mail forwarding at the property so if they mail notices to the property, they get forwarded to you as well.