Who actually has the right to sue you?
Information only. Not legal advice or a claim that your case is defective.
1. The core idea: “standing”
“Standing” is about who has the legal right to enforce the debt and bring the foreclosure.
In simple terms:
“If you’re going to drag me into court, are you actually the one with the right to do it?”
2. Servicer vs. “owner” vs. plaintiff
Important distinctions:
- Servicer – The company you pay (or used to pay) monthly. Handles day-to-day loan management.
- Owner / Investor – The entity that actually owns the loan (sometimes a trust, bank, or fund).
- Plaintiff – The name on the lawsuit as the party suing you.
Sometimes:
- All three are aligned.
- Other times, they shift over time:
- Servicer changes
- Assignments shift the mortgage
- Plaintiff name changes (substitutions)
Your job is not to untangle every corporate relationship. Your job is to see whether the story keeps changing.
3. Where assignments live
Assignments show up in two main places:
- Public land records (county recorder / clerk / ACRIS-type systems)
- Court documents (as exhibits in the foreclosure case)
You’re looking for documents labeled:
- “Assignment of Mortgage”
- “Corporate Assignment of Deed of Trust”
- “Allonge to Note” (for endorsements on the note)
You don’t have to pull everything yourself if that’s overwhelming. Start with what’s already in your case files.
4. Basic questions to ask when you look at assignments
When you see an assignment:
- Who is the assignor (party giving away interest)?
- Who is the assignee (party receiving it)?
- What is the execution date (date signed)?
- Does that match the story being told in the complaint and affidavits?
Ask yourself:
- Does the Plaintiff match the final assignee in the assignment chain?
- Do the dates make sense with when the lawsuit was filed?
- Are there missing steps (e.g., A → B in record, B → C in record, but case brought by D with no record of B → D or C → D)?
5. Surface-level red flags to note (not to argue alone)
Things to mark down and ask about later:
- Assignments dated after the foreclosure case was filed, especially if they appear to “fix” a problem.
- Assignments that skip a party you know was involved (e.g., your servicer or a known investor).
- Signatures that look identical across many documents, or names you see in other homeowners’ stories (potential robo-signing issues).
- Assignments that only appear in PDFs from the plaintiff, but not in any public recording system you can locate.
You are not declaring fraud. You’re saying, “This doesn’t feel like a clean, straight line.”
6. How to bring this to attorneys / legal aid
When speaking with an attorney:
- Bring a printed or digital stack of all assignments and allonges you have.
- Bring a simple handwritten chart like:StepFrom (Assignor)To (Assignee)Date on DocumentWhere Found
- Say something like:“I tried to map the assignments. I’m not sure if this is legally defective, but the sequence and dates confuse me. Can you walk me through whether this matters in my case?”
Your role: organized witness to the paperwork, not homegrown prosecutor.