Lenders weren't the only ones involved in Sidnetta Smith's foreclosure difficulty. Her attorney, Charles Pekor, said a company hired to essentially evict Smith and seize the home failed to follow Georgia law.

After a foreclosure, if a home is not clearly abandoned, the lender is required to go through a legal process known as dispossession, which is similar to eviction, to remove inhabitants. Pekor said a number of his clients who have gone through foreclosure have had their property illegally seized from the premises because lenders failed to follow the law.

"They just back a couple big trucks up to the back door and haul everything off, and people never see their property again," he said.

A spokeswoman for Lender Processing Services, the Jacksonville, Fla., parent company of the repossession firm, declined to comment citing Smith's pending lawsuit.