Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Foreclosure

You have a sale date of 06/10/2009? Your options are extremely limited. Loan modification is almost certainly out of the question - you don't have enough time. The local bank branch has no ability to renegotiate your loan - its done through one of several central loss-mitigation units, and the only way you can start the process is by phone and fax. I've never seen nor heard of someone getting a loan modification done in basically six business days.

You may have the ability to stop the foreclosure with payment, but its going to take more than just the five missed payments - they are going to insist on being reimbursed late fees, insurance, foreclosure costs, etc... before they stop the sale. Your best bet at this point is to meet with a bankruptcy attorney to discuss how you might save the house in a chapter 13. If 06/10/2009 isn't the sale date, but some other date, then you have more time, but I still suggest you meet with an attorney immediately.

*Due to the limitations of the LawGuru Forums, The Gibbs Law Firm, APC's (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided is general and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.

Re: Foreclosure

You don't advise General Motors on how to avoid or emerge from bankruptcy by walking in to your local dealer, nor do you suggest how McDonalds can improve the special sauce on a Big Mac by giving your recipe to the manager of the restaurant downtown. Similarly, personnel in a branch bank are neither authorized nor equipped to deal with the bank's mortgages, except I believe you can make a payment there if you have a preprinted payment coupon.

There are two sure-fire ways to stop a foreclosure with only a few days to go. One is to file bankruptcy - but as a word of caution, you cannot file Chapter 13 without completing a bankruptcy-court approved credit-counseling training; this can be done on-line, but don't expect to file on a moment's notice without having done the training and some thinking and planning.

The other way to stop a foreclosure is, as Mr. Gibbs says, to pay the current amount due, including costs incurred by the beneficiary in preparing to foreclose and sell. This right to reinstate a loan and avoid foreclosure is set forth in Civil Code section 2924c, "Cure of default" and subsection (e) allows the cure to be made any time through the fifth business day preceding the initial date of sale in a recorded notice of sale. The provisions of 2924c are lengthy and technical, and your time is EXTREMELY limited, so if you decide to follow the cure routine you need to make a tough business decision and contact the trustee within, it sounds like, the next day?

Some banks and trustees will accept payments to cure later than the fifth pre-sale business day, but DON'T count on it; they aren't required to!

Re: Foreclosure

Taken into account both Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Whipple's recommendations I would also suggest that there is a third option available. It involves the use of creative litigation tactics that may or may not apply depending upon the facts of your foreclosure. The most effective recently has been the "produce the note" theory. I suggest you contact an attorney asap.

Yours truly,

Bryan