She claims servicing letters arrived years before the assignment was recorded - now a judge will weigh in
A Fort Lauderdale homeowner has sued NewRez, Ditech and Paramount Residential Mortgage Group in federal court, challenging how her mortgage was serviced and who had the right to enforce it.
The lawsuit, filed on April 17, 2026 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, was brought by April L. Young, who is representing herself. The case is docketed as No. 0:26-cv-61149. The allegations have not been tested in court, and no ruling has been issued on the merits.
According to the filing, Young took out a residential mortgage on February 1, 2016 through Paramount Residential Mortgage Group, secured by her home at 1820 NW 28th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale. Shortly after the loan was originated, she says, mortgage statements and servicing letters began arriving from Ditech Financial LLC - even though no assignment transferring the loan to Ditech had yet been recorded in the Broward County public records. That recorded assignment, the filing states, did not appear until March 18, 2019. A foreclosure default followed a week later, on March 25, 2019.
That gap is at the heart of Young's case. She argues the timing raises questions about who actually had the authority to service and enforce the loan during the years in between. Servicing later moved to NewRez LLC, which the filing identifies as doing business as Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing.
Young's claims rest on two federal consumer protection statutes: the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and the Truth in Lending Act. She alleges the defendants failed to reasonably investigate her written disputes and did not produce a complete life-of-loan accounting showing how payments, escrow adjustments and insurance charges were applied. Her statements between 2016 and 2018, she says, reflected escalating escrow shortages, force-placed insurance activity and disputed payment posting - and her requests for clarification, she contends, did not produce a complete and accurate accounting. A separate count alleges unfair and deceptive servicing practices.
The backstory is unusually layered. The property was the subject of a Broward County foreclosure case, Ditech Financial LLC v. April L. Young, No. CACE-19-006695, that produced a final judgment in 2024, appellate mandates in 2025 and a reinstatement order in 2026. Young has also filed a state quiet title action and references an earlier federal matter in the same district.
One detail stands out. Young points to a recorded burial site declaration in the Broward County Official Records indicating that the property contains protected burial remains under Florida law, and argues any disturbance would cause harm that money cannot fix.
She is asking the court for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to pause enforcement, an order requiring the servicers to produce a full life-of-loan accounting and documentation of their authority to enforce the loan, statutory damages and declaratory relief. The defendants have not yet responded, and the court has not ruled on the request for emergency relief.
For mortgage professionals, the filing lands as a reminder that assignment timing, servicing transfers and how borrower disputes are handled can surface long after a loan leaves the closing table - and sometimes long after a foreclosure has already moved through the courts.
