Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: foreclosure

After the property has been sold, the new owner has the choice to keep you as a tenant, if you want to stay, and will negotiate a rental agreement or to evict you from the premises. If you are the borrower under the foreclosed mortgage, and if the lender foreclosed by Trustee's sale, that lender cannot get a judgment against you for any deficiency in payment.

Re: foreclosure

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Re: foreclosure

After a foreclosure sale and collecting any cash due from the high bidder, the trustee issues a trustee's deed to the high bidder. The high bidder is then the new owner and entitled to immediate possession, just as though the former owner had sold the property in a conventional sale through a real-estate agent.

Some buyers at trustee sales are investors or speculators who don't intend to occupy the property themselves. Such buyers might be interested in renting to the former owners.

Some buyers at trustee sales are the banks or other lenders; they have an advantage in that they can bid with the money owed them, rather than cash. These are called credit bids. Although not all lenders are the same, most seem not interested in being landlords and would rather let the property stand vacant, but there are exceptions.

The final class of buyer is those who want to use the property themselves, or at least want it vacant so they can remodel.

Any purchaser that wants the property empty for whatever reason, or to occupy it themself, can give the former owner a three-day notice to quit. That is the first step in the unlawful detainer and eviction process, which typically takes about five weeks to complete (until the sheriff carries out the removal of the occupants), although this will vary from court to court and case to case, and can be quicker or slower.