Through the simple passage of time, she may have accrued a legally recognized defense against future attempts to foreclose. 

Seems like having a good defense with cash reserves or emergency funds will help a long way.  

Since your best defense is good tenant screening, instead of writing confusing leases that contain stuff you can sue over  - which of course is an expensive PITA - then the simpler, the better in my opinion.Not sure if Nolo has contracts for where your property is, but you can check them out here:http://store.nolo.com/products/leases/residentialTheir books are great, too.  

Which means absolutely nothing in the defense of your saying that the American Rule says you can charge the other party attorney fees if you win.  

Even if you win the case you lost the money paying for your defense.

It used to be that if whatever your wrote about a person was true, then that was a perfect defense.  

I would not hire a defense attorney (unless is free consultation) until you get an actual summons by the court, because until then it can all be threats and just talk.

I also was a practicing attorney for 10 years, a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney who negotiated every day for 10 years.

And another note aside from my passionate defense of Binghamton, and more on the investment track: Students are cautiously signing leases, but there are a lot of them returning now that the school has reopened.

You can use addiction as a defense for bad behaviors.