Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: forclosure and inspection

There is so much variation, even within a single lender, that it is a guess as to when they will foreclose. If you tell them why you can not pay and that the money is going into fixing up the place, the may give yo more time. Lenders actually do not want to foreclose as they do not want to be in the real estate business and a large number of foreclosure damages their reputation and ability to do other business.

The City may give a new owner additional time to complete the needed work, but technically the existence of a new owner is irrelevant.

Go through earlier answers to real estate questions about foreclosures to see various idea as to how you might be able to avoid it or lessen the blow.

Re: forclosure and inspection

As the other memebers have stated the time under which the foreclosure will be effective varies with the lender. There is alot of crazy stuff going on in the subprime markt, which may push it out farther. You should always try working out a deal with the lender before letting the prop go into foreclosure. As to the code problems. If you no longer own the home then it is probably not your problem. If you work it out with the lender then you would be responsible for the code violations.

Re: forclosure and inspection

Traditionally we used to expect the Notice of Default to arrive about 75 days after the first payment date was missed, with some variation from lender to lender and some variation with how seasoned the loan is and quality of communications between the lender and borrower. There is a lot of chaos in lending and forclosures now, and the predictibility is way down, maybe because the foreclosure experts are too busy, or maybe there is political pressure to give borrowers a little more leeway.

Anyway, it takes over 90 days by law from service of the Notice of Default until there can be a foreclosure sale.

As to the code violations, a city or county can take two approaches. One is that the violation is only a characteristic of the property, and once you no longer own it, they'll leave you alone as ancient history. The other possibility is that they will decide you are a lawbreaker, and will prosecute. This is far less likely IMHO, but if you did something really flagrant they might decide to make an example out of you.