Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Bank does not force someone to go into bankruptcy. You are the one who has to decide what options are available to you to settle the debt (if bank does not collect the entire loan amount from the sale of the house). Your choices are: 1. If it was purchase money loan (not refinanced loan), the bank can not come after you. 2. Let the bank sue you, then you settle for cents on the dollar with the attorney. 3. Bank can send the account to collections. you can settle the debt with collection agency for cents on the dollar. 4. File Bankruptcy.

There are two possible meanings to your phrase "...force me into bankruptcy:" (1) file an involuntary petition against you; or (2) place you in an economic situation where voluntarily filing for bankruptcy makes sense. #1 is very unlikely, both for legal and practical reasons. #2 may happen, but is still somewhat unlikely for the legal reason that most loan situations do not give the creditor an option of seeking a deficiency when the foreclosure doesn't pay off the loan. The bank gets the house, but usually nothing more, and although you are now house-less, you have no further obligation to the bank. I hasten to add that this analysis may not apply if the loan being foreclosed is not a purchase-money loan, or if there are second mortgages.