This case began as an interpleader filed by a closing attorney caught in the middle of a family property dispute — wisely deciding not to referee a fight over sale proceeds while trying to deliver clear title.
While this decision is, on its face, a fairly ordinary residential rental dispute—replete with mold allegations, maintenance requests, and implied-warranty skirmishing—the part that should actually catch the attention of consumer and bankruptcy attorneys is the Court’s treatment of the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act and its companion Debt Collection Act provisions.
In Roach v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., the North Carolina Court of Appeals again draws a hard line between conduct that feels unfair and conduct that is legally actionable under Chapter 75. The court affirmed summary judgment for Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., holding that the borrowers’ grievances — however sympathetic — did not amount to unfair and deceptive trade practices.
This is a foreclosure case with a long backstory, and that backstory matters.
At first blush, Zuleger v. Clore looks like a pure state-law property dispute about life estates, remainders, and an aging house that no one can afford to fix. But for bankruptcy practitioners—especially in North Carolina—it quietly sharpens an issue we wrestle with all the time:
How do you value a life estate or remainder interest when the law allows liquidation in theory, but the market reality says otherwise?
In Pelc v. Pham (No. COA25-27, filed Oct. 15, 2025), the North Carolina Court of Appeals (Tyson, J.) vacated a Mecklenburg County contempt order imprisoning a former spouse for failure to pay a contractual debt arising from a Form I-864 “Affidavit of Support” and related loan. The appellate court held that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to use contempt powers to enforce a money judgment grounded in breach of contract.
Trenita Rogers bought her Winterville home in 2010, subject to the Irish Creek HOA. In 2021, after allegedly failing to pay $1,391.23 in assessments, the HOA filed liens and moved forward with foreclosure. Notice was attempted by certified mail during the USPS’s Covid-19 “contactless” protocol—where carriers often signed “C19” themselves instead of obtaining the addressee’s signature—and by sheriff posting without a proper court order.
