Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

It depends. If it is a judicial foreclosure, and you win the case, then you will not lose your home. If it is a nonjudicial foreclosure, meaning foreclosure through trustee's sale, and you are filing suit, you will have to get the court to issue a preliminary injunction to stop the sale. If you lose the case, however, the sale will proceed and you will get foreclosed on.

You don't provide any other information regarding your situation to provide a definitive response.

Most foreclosures are done without court proceedings. You wait for 'court' and you'll lose the house. Consult with local counsel experienced in foreclosure actions, to see IF you have any way of defending against it. Generally not. Don't get your hopes up, unless you can show substantial legal defect or error in the foreclosure process. Just 'cause it is painful to you is not a defense.

In the broadest possible terms, when you have a legal basis that might allow you to prevail against the foreclosing lender, and a reason to want to prevail.

As the two previous answers indicate, there are two different methods or processes for foreclosing. In the less common situation, the lender sues the borrower, in court, for the foreclosure itself, and often, for some other matters, including the right to have a judgment against the borrower if the sale doesn't pay off the loan. This is a so-called judicial foreclosure, and the borrower who is sued for judicial foreclosure can raise any defenses he or she has, and may also cross-complain (counter-sue) in the same case, if he or she has any grounds to assert claims or charges against the lender.

Much more often, the lender exercises the "power of sale" contained in the deed of trust, and the foreclosure is carried out by an auction conducted by the trustee. In this kind of foreclosure, there is no court case -- unless and until the borrower goes to court and files a suit. Borrowers facing a trustee sale occasionally do go to court, sometimes to try to stop the sale, sometimes for other reasons. Also, borrowers occasionally go to court after a trustee sale to try to have the sale invalidated.

I have participated on behalf of both borrowers and lenders in such cases. Among the reasons one might fight a foreclosure include (1) the person who borrowed the money didn't have any ownership interest in the property at the time the loan secured by the property was made; (2) truth-in-lending violations; (3) failure to give notices as required by law; (4) failure to give proper credit for payments made; and many others.

There is another way some people "go to court" to fight a foreclosure. An increasing number of borrowers are going into Federal Bankruptcy Court and filing for Chapter 13 or Chapter 7 protection.

A final thought.......there are certainly some situations where you might have a winnable case from the standpoint that the judge or jury might give you a favorable decision, but by the time you've spent the money and endured the hassle, you are right back where you started, with a loan you can't afford and a property that's worth less than you owe. So, some people with perfectly good reasons to sue the lender, and a chance of winning, are not bothering to do so. You have to look at the cost, your odds of winning, and whether winning is really just postponing losing.