Court blocks Deutsche Bank foreclosure after FAPA kills reset strategy
New York’s Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act (FAPA), effective December 30, 2022, states that voluntarily discontinuing a foreclosure does not “waive, postpone, cancel, toll, extend, revive or reset” the limitations period. The Engel reset strategy was dead.
When Deutsche Bank filed this second foreclosure in May 2023, 8IN, LLC moved to dismiss. The acceleration happened in December 2009. The new suit came more than 13 years later. The six-year window had long closed.
Deutsche Bank argued the March 2022 ruling should bind the court, and that applying FAPA retroactively violated the US and New York constitutions. The Appellate Division, Second Department rejected both, citing Court of Appeals decisions upholding FAPA’s retroactive reach.
For servicers still holding files where an older action was discontinued pre-FAPA, the math is blunt: if the original acceleration is more than six years old, that file may already be dead.
