Mortgage Company Tells Homeowner Current On His Mortgage Payments That It Lost The Promissory Note; Is The Lender Up To Something?

One reader recently wrote that he received a letter from his mortgage company saying that it lost his promissory note in connection with his home loan. The reader stated that he never missed a payment on his mortgage, and wonders whether this is something to be concerned about.

I can only think of two possibilities (arguably unlikely, but then again, maybe not) that a lender might be up to by placing the borrower on notice that the promissory note has been lost. Assume that the borrower does nothing to assert any legal rights that may arise in connection therewith and simply keeps making the mortgage payments. It may be that, in a possible future legal action to foreclose the mortgage, the lender might attempt to say that:

1. the borrower's inaction in asserting any rights that arose at the time he was placed on notice of the loss of the promissory note constitutes a "waiver" of those rights, thereby preventing the borrower from raising the issue, and


2. the borrower's continued payments on the mortgage loan after being placed on notice that the promissory note was lost possibly operates as an "estoppel" against the borrower (the borrower is estopped, or precluded, from raising the lost note as an issue).

Could the lender be laying the groundwork for a defense against having lost the promissory note in a possible future foreclosure action against the reader (and all other borrowers that it placed on similar notice)?

The only other possibility I can think of is that the reader was simply pulling my leg and never received a letter from the mortgage company in the first place.

Thoughts anyone???