FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- When Jason Grodensky bought his modest Fort Lauderdale home in December, he paid cash. But seven months later, he was surprised to learn that Bank of America had foreclosed on the house, even though he did not have a mortgage.

Mr. Grodensky knew nothing about the foreclosure until July, when he learned that the title to his home had been transferred to a government-backed lender.

"I feel like I'm hanging in the wind, and I'm scared to death," he said. "How did some attorney put through a foreclosure illegally?"

Bank of America has acknowledged the error and will correct it at its own expense, said spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens.

Mr. Grodensky's story and other tales of foreclosure mistakes started popping up recently. In the past two weeks, Ally Financial Inc.'s GMAC unit, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America suspended foreclosure judgments and evictions following acknowledgments by employees at some servicers that they signed affidavits necessary to move thousands of foreclosure cases a month toward judgment without reviewing the documents. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have asked servicers to review their affidavit procedures, and Freddie Mac said it wanted the review completed by Oct. 18.

In Florida courts, which have been swamped with foreclosure cases for several years, mistakes "happen all the time," said foreclosure defense attorney Matt Weidner in St. Petersburg. "It's just not getting reported."

And the legal efforts required to resolve a foreclosure mistake are complicated.

"Unwrapping it is like unwrapping Fort Knox," said Carol Asbury, a Fort Lauderdale foreclosure attorney. "It's very difficult."

The process is under increasing scrutiny as courts struggle with the mountain of cases that have resulted from the housing crisis.

Mr. Grodensky said he spent months trying to figure out what happened but said his questions to Bank of America and to the law firm Florida Default Law Group that handled the foreclosure have not been answered. Florida Default Law Group could not be reached for comment, despite several attempts by phone and e-mail. Mr. Grodensky said he has filed a claim with his title insurance company, but that, too, has not resulted in any action.

It wasn't until September, when Mr. Grodensky brought his problem to the attention of the Sun Sentinel, that it began to be resolved.

"It looks like it was a mistake in communication between us and the attorneys handling the foreclosure," said Ms. Bauwens.

Court records show that in 2008, Countrywide Home Loans filed a foreclosure case in Broward County civil court against the home's former owner. Bank of America took over Countrywide at the end of that year.

The following year, Mr. Grodensky and his father, Steven Grodensky, bought the house for cash as an investment property. Jason Grodensky's brother, Kenny Sloan, lives in the house now. They negotiated a short sale, which means the lender agreed to accept less than the mortgage amount. Documents show the sale proceeds were wired to Bank of America. The sale was recorded in December 2009 at the Broward County Property Appraiser's Office.

But in court, the foreclosure case continued, the records show. There was a motion to dismiss the case in July, followed the next day by a motion to re-open it. A court-ordered foreclosure sale took place July 15. The property appraiser's office recorded the transfer of the title to Fannie Mae the same day.

Ms. Bauwens said the lender would go back to court to rescind the foreclosure sale. Broward Chief Judge Victor Tobin, who set up the county court's foreclosure system, said this is the first he's heard of this type of mistake.

"From the court's point of view, we have no way of knowing that someone sells a house unless they tell us," said Judge Tobin. "The bank would first have to tell the lawyers, and the lawyers would presumably ask the court for an order dismissing the case."

Judge Tobin said the court system is under pressure to clear up its foreclosure backlog. This year, the state court system pumped $6 million into the effort, hiring more temporary judges and staffers. Some say there's too much effort aimed at simply disposing of the cases.

"The evidence doesn't matter. The proof doesn't matter. Due process doesn't matter," said Ms. Asbury, the attorney. "The only thing that matters is that they get rid of these cases."

Mindy Watson-Cintron of Century 21 Tenace Realty said she was unable to stop a foreclosure even though she had a willing buyer for a Coral Springs, Fla., home last summer. Ms. Watson-Cintron had a letter from GMAC Mortgage agreeing to sell the house in a short sale. The letter indicates the deal would be accepted through Aug. 20.

Ms. Watson-Cintron said she called, pleaded and even spent three hours one day in the lobby of the law offices of David Stern in Plantation, Fla., trying to get someone to agree to put the foreclosure on hold. Mr. Stern's office is one of the nation's largest foreclosure firms and, Ms. Watson-Citron said, represented GMAC in the foreclosure case.

But the foreclosure continued. The lender took back the home and now has it listed for sale -- at a lower price than Ms. Watson-Cintron's buyer offered.

"The bank's not talking to the attorneys, and the attorneys are not talking to the courts," she said.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is investigating Mr. Stern's firm, Florida Legal Default Group, based in Tampa, the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson in Fort Lauderdale and Shapiro & Fishman, which has offices in Boca Raton. Officials have said the investigation centers on whether foreclosure documents submitted by these firms were false, misleading or inaccurate.