Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Foreclosure

I imagine that the balance of the foreclosure documents were sent to your old address, and you may not have received them. It would be extremely unlikely that the lender would list the home for sale, and remove your property before they actually had title. If you have a realtor friend, have them look up title to see if the home has transferred to the lender. Alternatively, go down to the realtor's office who has the listing and demand to see the agent, or the office broker to know why they listed your home for sale - they had better be able to show you something indicating that you no longer own the home. As for your possessions, this raises an issue I have been thinking about for some time. After a foreclosure, banks have been hiring "trash-out" companies to come in and strip the home clean. The property is thrown away (or in the case of nice stuff, kept by the employees of the trash-out company - search for the term trash-out - there is a good video news report from the inland empire that details this practice). Anyway, the issue is this - after the foreclosure, they own the home, but not the property left behind. There is a procedure they must follow to obtain title to the personal property left behind, but I'll bet you any amount of money they did not do what they are required by law to do. I'd suggest suing the lender in Small Claims court for taking your property without following the legal process for doing so - see if you can't extract some of the money back that you paid them to stop the foreclosure. Good luck, and if you think about it, email me (at the address below) to let me know what happens. You are too far (distance) from my office for me to help you, but I'd sure be interested to hear what happens.

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