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Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-5-118

Deficiency judgment sufficient to fully satisfy indebtedness on real property after trustee's or foreclosure sale

Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case First Bank v. FISCHER & FRICHTEL, INC. (2012)

Most recently applied in Kelly D. Bush v. Commerce Union Bank D/B/A Reliant Bank (January 2017)

Acts 2010, ch. 1001, § 1.

How often courts cite this section

2012201730
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) In an action brought by a creditor to recover a balance still owing on an indebtedness after a trustee's or foreclosure sale of real property secured by a deed of trust or mortgage, the creditor shall be entitled to a deficiency judgment in an amount sufficient to satisfy fully the indebtedness.

(2) In all such actions, absent a showing of fraud, collusion, misconduct, or irregularity in the sale process, the deficiency judgment shall be for the total amount of indebtedness prior to the sale plus the costs of the foreclosure and sale, less the fair market value of the property at the time of the sale. The creditor shall be entitled to a rebuttable prima facie presumption that the sale price of the property is equal to the fair market value of the property at the time of the sale.

(3) To overcome the presumption set forth in subsection (b), the debtor must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the property sold for an amount materially less than the fair market value of property at the time of the foreclosure sale. If the debtor overcomes the presumption, the deficiency shall be the total amount of the indebtedness prior to the sale plus the costs of the foreclosure and sale, less the fair market value of the property at the time of the sale as determined by the court.

(4) Any action for a deficiency judgment under this section shall be brought not later than the earlier of: Two (2) years after the date of the trustee's or foreclosure sale, exclusive of any period of time in which a petition for bankruptcy is pending; or

(5) The time for enforcing the indebtedness as provided for under §§ 28-1-102 and 28-2-111.

(6) Nothing contained in this section shall be construed as limiting a person entitled to bring such action from electing to sue on an indebtedness in lieu of, prior to, or contemporaneously with enforcement of a deed of trust or mortgage.

Current official text: Tennessee Code (LexisNexis). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Tennessee statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.