Okay, updates as promised...
The LOC at the time of the junior foreclosure complaint was close to maxed out. $69k before fees, expenses, etc. So no easy news there. I've also asked the title company to make a payoff demand to double check.
More interesting and promising was that my, admittedly amateur, legal research over the weekend seems to indicate that in Florida the law provides a widespread use of a legal doctrine called 're-foreclosure'. Basically allowing subordinate liens to be added in after the fact on the original foreclosure case in order to close them out. This may be my saving grace in getting this resolved.
As a point of interest - the senior foreclosure complaint referenced the junior lien in a way that makes it appear the intent was to close it out --- they just didn't serve themselves. So it's really seeming at this point that this was an oversight on their part. Not sure what the implications of this will be - but I'm hopeful that will mean they are easier to work with in resolving things. Maybe I can get an easy lien release.
So my plan is...
-Get the lien demand back, and confirm that their is still a balance.
and then after advice from council...
-Possibly contact the bank directly to seek lien release since the law appears to allow me to add their lien interest onto the original action anyway, thus saving time / money / etc.
-Possibly file a re-foreclosure action as mentioned above.
