Kurt Johnson, the president of the North American Collection Agency Regulatory Association and a senior investigator with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, said it was highly unusual for a collections agency to recover payments through the sale of a home that isn't facing foreclosure.
"Typically, they just put liens on the property," he said. "I've never heard of it in my 20 years in Minnesota, and I've never heard of it in any other state."
North American Recovery's president, David Saxton, did not return several phone calls from ABC News.
Lt. Kendra Herlin of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said that the office generally notifies someone of a sheriff's sale either in person or by posting a notice on the property itself.
Herlin said it was "highly unlikely" that someone would not receive notification that their home was being put up for sale.
Meade, who stressed that he has no firsthand knowledge of the specifics in Ramos's case, said he found it difficult to believe that a person in Ramos's position would never receive any notification.
"The thing that's strange in my mind is her claim that she didn't know this was occurring. I find that hard to imagine, given what has to happen," he said.
But Ramos said that's what happened to her. She said the sheriff's office used an inaccurate legal description of the house and that that kept her from learning of the sale.
"The law is simply unjust when your home can be sold to satisfy such a small debt, when other property exists that could also be sold to satisfy the debt," said Ryan James, of Haskins & Associates, the Salt Lake City firm currently representing Ramos, in an e-mail to ABC News.
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