Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

What do you mean by being held responsible for? First if this is your primary residence then our state's anti-deficiency statue will protect the both of you from the bank being able to come after you for the difference in what the house is auctioned off for and what is wowed. However this only applies to the 1st mortgage.

Have you considered or tried to do a modification of your loan? We do them for a fee as well as a bunch of free groups which you can find at www.hud.gov.

If you want you can give me a call for a free consultation. Our number is 866 981-1850 or you can check our website at www.bellilawfirm.com

I think the previous answer somewhat misstates the law governing whether a lender is entitled to a judgment for a deficiency. First, the lender must go to court to foreclose, There can never be a deficiency judgment after a foreclosure by trustee's sale. Lenders ordinarily elect to foreclose by trustee's sale because going to court takes a long time, costs money, and has an uncertain result. It also creates bad publicity for them.

The second requirement is that the loan be something other than a purchase-money loan on an owner-occupied one-to-four unit residential property. If this is a single-family home, one of the owners lives there, and the loan being foreclosed was used to purchase the property, the lender may not get a judgment for a deficiency in the foreclosure-sale proceeds.

If the lender could get a deficiency judgment (which appears unlikely), it would probably name both borrowers (your husband and his father) as the debtors. Then, we switch from real-estate lending law to family law to see whether the wives are co-debtors on the judgment.

I am not an expert in family law, but I believe community property (things that are yours and his) would be liable for the judgment. Your separate property would not, unless the debt were incurred for "the necessaries of life," and since this debt would be housing-related, it is possible, I think, that your separate property could be tapped. By the way, the bank account that stands in your name is likely to be community property anyway, if it contains money you earned while married.

Bottom line is that you might sustain some loss of credit rating if there is a foreclosure, and you'd lose the home, but the danger of the lender successfully getting any money in addition to what the foreclosure auction sale brings is very low.

This situation calls for a family meeting to decide whether to pay the arrearages, whether to try to negotiate a loan modification (and who will take the lead in doing so), where you are going to move if there is a foreclosure, and related issues. I'd act fast; four months is close to the point where you'll have a Notice of Default recorded and served.