POSTED ON: JUNE 24, 2013 , BY LAURA MANNING-HUDSON

A decision earlier this month by the Third District Court of Appeal serves as a good lesson to community associations and their attorneys about the importance of working closely with their process servers to ensure that all of the statutory requirements for service or “constructive service” on unit owners in foreclosure actions are met. In the case of Castro v. Charter Club Inc., the appellate panel reversed a Final Judgment of Foreclosure finding that the search and inquiry performed by the Charter Club condominium association and its attorneys did not satisfy the constructive notice statute, its notice by publication was improper, and the foreclosure judgment against the homeowners was void and must be vacated.

In this case, the association’s process server went to the Castro’s daughter’s home address, which the couple had listed as their alternate address and billing address with the association. The daughter stated that she gave the process server the new address for the Castros, but the server never wrote it down. The process server then went to a wrong address in search of the Castros, and no further attempts were made to revisit the daughter to verify the correct address. The process server also did not advise the daughter that he was there to serve the Castros with a complaint for foreclosure.   Read More……