Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

If they're abandoned. Sometimes they are.

I respectfully disagree. The California Supreme Court has ruled that real property cannot be abandoned. See Gerhard v. Stephens (1968) 68 Cal.2d 864. It says "Legal title to a fee simple can never be abandoned."

The Court goes on to say that certain lesser rights in real property are capable of abandonment. For example, it is unquestioned that an easement can be abandoned. However, even that is difficult; mere non-use of an easement over decades may be evidence of abandonment, but does not in and of itself result in abandonment of the easement, without more.

Foreclosed homes are not abandoned. They are the property of the buyer at the foreclosure sale, i.e., the person to whom the trustee sold the home.

Do not confuse "neglected" with "abandoned."