Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

If you are the owner, you are illegally occupying the property once the gavel falls. So you have however long it takes the new owner to file and prosecute an unlawful detainer action. If you are a renter with a written lease or rental agreement you have 90-days or until the end of your lease, whichever is longer, as long as you fully comply with the lease or rental agreement including paying rent to the new owner. Depending on the sale date, this may result in you double paying some rent. You will need to take the old owner to small claims to get anything back. If you under pay the new owner you lose your 90-day protection.

Your rights technically terminate with the trustee's delivery of the trustee's deed to the buyer at or shortly after the auction. In practical terms, the buyer will have to evict you through a legal process called "unlawful detainer" if you don't move out voluntarily. This may take around 30 days, longer in some counties where the courts are clogged.

I agree with Mr. Whipple. Any lease agreement that was subordinate to the foreclosed deed of trust is terminated by operation of law. Code of Civil Procedure section 1161a subd. (b) provides that the procedures to bring an unlawful detainer action may by used by the purchaser at the trustee's sale after perfecting his title (recording the trustee's deed upon sale.) So you have about the amount of time it takes to prosecute an unlawful detainer, which depends on whether you default or answer the unlawful detainer action.