The quiet service stage is over. Between July 9 and July 15, 2026, the docket in NBL SPV IV LLC’s $5.1 million foreclosure (Case No. 50-2026-CA-005474, 15th Judicial Circuit) added thirteen entries — the first default motions, the first two answers, and the first open fight over who gets paid first. Here is each new filing, in plain English:
- July 9 — the lender moves to default three construction-lien defendants. NBL SPV IV filed clerk’s Motions for Default against Southern Land & Buildings LLC, Skyworks LLC, and Tru-Steel Corp. A default is what a plaintiff asks for when a served defendant lets its 20-day response window lapse: once entered, that defendant is locked out of contesting the case. These three lienholders hadn’t filed anything.
- July 13 — two more default motions: the same clerk’s-default paperwork aimed at the City of West Palm Beach and Cemex Construction Materials Florida, LLC.
- July 13 — the Perez-Valdivias file the case’s first answer. Rafael and Ashley Perez-Valdivia — the couple holding the $1.17M beer-mug judgment, joined here as junior lienholders — answered through counsel. Most of it is the standard “without knowledge, therefore denied” line-by-line response, but the substance is in two places: they admit they hold an interest in the property while expressly denying that it is junior to NBL’s mortgage (“demand strict proof thereof”), and they raise two affirmative defenses — failure to state a claim, and lack of standing. In plain terms: they won’t concede the lender’s first-position priority; NBL now has to prove it.
- July 15 — the clerk bounces the first three defaults. A Notice of Default Not Entered refused the July 9 motions against Southern Land, Tru-Steel, and Skyworks: the original summonses with proper returns of service weren’t on file, and Rule 1.500 requires proof that the default motion itself was served. A paperwork rejection, not a ruling on the merits.
- July 15 — the lender re-files all three, this time attaching the process server’s returns of service (Tru-Steel, for example, was served June 18 through its registered agent in Fort Pierce). If the paperwork now satisfies the clerk, defaults against the three non-responders should follow.
- July 15 — the City of West Palm Beach lawyers up and fights its default. Assistant City Attorney Whitney Bird filed a notice of appearance, an answer, and a response to NBL’s default motion. The response lays out the timeline: the City was served June 22, its 20 days ran out July 13 — the very day NBL moved to default it — but plaintiff’s counsel had already agreed by email to a two-day extension, and the answer arrived July 15 as agreed. The City says the default motion should be withdrawn or denied.
- The City’s headline claim: its liens outrank the mortgage. The answer attaches twelve recorded utility liens against the property (June 2023 through March 2026, each cited by Official Records book and page) and asserts that under §90-5(d) of the city code, utility liens are “prior in dignity to all other liens against the property, except liens for taxes.” In other words, the City claims priority over NBL’s $5.1M mortgage and asks the court to determine the priority and amount of every lien before any foreclosure judgment.
Where that leaves things: still no judgment and no auction date, but the case now has two active opponents — the Perez-Valdivias making the lender prove its priority, and the City claiming to jump the line entirely — while NBL mops up the non-responders with clerk’s defaults. Next things to watch on the docket: whether the clerk enters the re-filed defaults, and how NBL responds to the City’s priority claim. As always, these are the parties’ allegations and positions, not court rulings. Full background: the foreclosure chapter · the beer-mug judgment.