No one. Even an illegal idiot peon from whatever south american sh!thole he comes, can honestly think that one can go 13 months without making a mortgage payment and not expect the bank to foreclose.
Payment on a loan, when/where/how, really isn’t the point. Record - owner of record. Liability, responsibility are still the homeowners’ until the bank/foreclosure has cleared.
Complications aside, I maintain, the illegal peons knew what they were doing. One has nothing to do with the other. One is a matter of private business, and the other is knowing fraud.