Apex Mortgage got dragged into a property sale it never saw coming—thanks to a bureaucratic slip-up. The court's ruling has industry-wide implications
Apex Mortgage fought off a faulty Pennsylvania tax sale that nearly wiped its lien—even though the homeowner had paid the property taxes in full.
Apex Mortgage Corp., together with homeowners Frank and Lisa Basilavecchio, successfully challenged the Delaware County Tax Claim Bureau after their property at 0-6 Wolfendale Ave., Collingdale, Pennsylvania was wrongly sold in a September 22, 2022 upset tax sale. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, in a decision issued July 8, 2025, affirmed the trial court's ruling that the sale was void ab initio—legally invalid from the start—because the 2019 real estate taxes had already been paid.
The sale, which transferred the property to Nelson Cruz, LLC, stemmed from a bureaucratic breakdown: the county bureau relied on incorrect information that the Basilavecchios were delinquent on their taxes. In reality, Apex had made the tax payment from the escrow account it maintained as the first mortgage holder—a fact verified at a November 1, 2023 hearing.
At that hearing, the borough tax collector admitted that Apex’s payment had been deposited and applied to the 2019 taxes. The bureau’s upset tax sale coordinator testified she hadn’t independently confirmed the delinquency and had relied solely on the borough’s report. After this, all parties agreed the taxes were paid—and that the sale had been a mistake.
Still, Nelson Cruz, LLC appealed, arguing Apex lacked standing and that the petition to set aside the sale came too late. They claimed that once a tax claim becomes “absolute” under Pennsylvania’s Real Estate Tax Sale Law (RETSL), it can only be challenged on narrow procedural grounds—not because the taxes were already paid.
But the Commonwealth Court disagreed. The court ruled that the issue of standing had been waived because it wasn’t properly raised at trial. More importantly, it held that Section 314(e) of RETSL expressly allows a petition to set aside a tax sale on the grounds of payment, even after the claim has become absolute. Since the taxes had, in fact, been paid, the court said the sale was void from the beginning.
This case should raise flags for mortgage servicers and escrow administrators. It’s a rare but real risk: a home sold from under both the owner and lender, despite all payments being made. Apex’s win reinforces that servicers must be vigilant in tracking tax payments and ready to act when local governments misfire. Mistakes in municipal processing can jeopardize even well-managed mortgage accounts. And in those moments, having the documentation—and the legal muscle—to fight back can protect your lien from vanishing in a bureaucratic error.
