Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You interchangeably use the terms "filed" and "recorded." Original documents are sent to the County Recorder's office, and recorded, and after recording they are returned to the individual or entity listed at the top of the document to be recorded. Recordation of the Notice of Default is required to commence nonjudicial foreclosure through the power of sale pursuant to Civil Code section 2924. That section does use the term "file for record" but based on what you have provided, the Notice of Default was not recorded until August 17, 2010. I'm just speculating, but maybe the lender recorded an earlier notice of default, which may have been cancelled, or maybe that is the term they use for filing in their own records. You could check the records at your County Recorder's office to be sure.

Notice of Sale cannot be recorded until three months elapses from the recordation of the Notice of Default. Again, the statute uses the term "filing" but this means recordation and not some internal filing system at the bank. (Civ. Code, sect. 2924 subd. (a)(2).) Notice of Sale should not have been recorded until at least November 17, 2010, given the recording date of the Notice of Default you have provided.

A substitution of trustee is governed by Civil Code section 2934a. The substitution of trustee is valid when it is executed. "A trustee named in a recorded substitution of trustee shall be deemed to be authorized to act as the trustee under the mortgage or deed of trust for all purposes from the date the substitution is executed by the mortgagee, beneficiaries, or by their authorized agents." (Civil Code section 2934a subd (d).)

A notarization is not required to make the substitution of trustee valid, it is required prior to the document being recorded. Under California's notary law, a notary may notarize a document after execution if the person executing the document acknowledges the document in the notaries presence. Thus a document may have been executed at an earlier date, with an acknowledgement of a notary at a later date, to facilitate recordation. The purpose of recordation is to give conculsive evidence of the authority of the substituted trustee to act. (Civ. Code, sect. 2934a subd. (d).)