Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You are wasting your time with a Chapter 7. The bank is just going to move for relief from the automatic stay. The MERS/ where's the note defense doesn't have much merit in California for stopping a nonjudicial foreclosure, which is the exercise of the power of sale in the deed of trust that you signed.

Chapter 13 is a better option, because as the Second District Court of Appeal pointed out, Chapter 13 is uniquely tailored to help debtors stay in their home, by making reduced payments under a plan of reorganization.

Attorneys who advocate the produce the note defense don't really know what they are doing. Be very careful of what you are reading on the internet. Many of these attorneys are encouraging frivolous litigation that goes nowhere, and wastes your money.

The "produce the note" defense to a foreclosure by trustee's sale doesn't work in California. At worst, the lender can provide a bond to assure the buyer at the foreclosure sale that the lender holds the note and the trustee is acting within its powers. Also, from the dates you provided, it sounds as though the lender has already obtained relief from the automatic stay (although I can't be certain from your descriptions).