Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Foreclosures

In California most residential loans are notes secured by deeds of trust rather than "mortgages" in the strictest sense. I assume you have note and deed of trust financing.

Also, there are two types of foreclosure; the more common is under the trustee's power of sale under the deed of trust; less commonly, there is judicial foreclosure (goes through court).

A foreclosure of a note and deed of trust by use of the trustee's power of sale is quite formal, almost ritualistic, and the duties of the foreclosing trust-deed beneficiary (the lender) and the trustee (usually a title company) are spelled out in the statutes, as are the many rights of the trustor (borrower) to receive notice and to take steps to prevent the trustee's sale.

I cannot tell for sure from your message whether this particular lender has followed the legally-necessary steps. Have you received a notice of default at any time? If so, you need to take immediate steps to protect your equity in your home.

It may be that your lender and/or the trustee are not particularly experienced at doing foreclosures and they may have muddled some of the steps. However, they'll get it right sooner or later.

The stakes are too high to take chances or try to get through your current difficulties without professional assistance. My advice is to buy an hour's time from a local real-estate attorney in your community and find out where the foreclosure process stands. Take all correspondence from the lender and/or the trustee to the first meeting. Also take your original loan documents. The peace of mind or, if warranted, the discovery of how much difficulty you're in, will make the one-hour (or half hour?) conference well worth the fee.