Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Too bad you didn't stop the foreclosure. Under California law they can't get a "deficiency judgment," at least not on your primary residence.

Without knowing the nature of the indebtness, we can not answer the questions. Please see prior answers to this type of question.

Both Stone and Shers are wrong, unless the lender foreclosed by going to court for the foreclosure. Assuming by "foreclosure" you mean the normal process where they give notice of default, then a notice of sale and then conduct a trustee's sale of the property, lenders are then precluded from going after you for any lost money on the balance. Once a lender conducts a non-judicial foreclousure, the "one form of action" rule is an absolute bar to any action to collect the balance, unless there has been fraud or some other cause of action is available to the lender other than an action to collect the balance on the debt. It makes no difference whether the property was your residence or the nature of the indebtedness, so long as it was a debt secured by a mortgage on real property.

I agree with Mr. McCormick. If the bank foreclosed by having the trustee foreclose by exercising the power of sale, through what is normally called "nonjudicial" foreclosure, the bank is precluded from pursuing you for a deficiency judgment. A deficiency is the difference between what the property sold for at the sale, and the amount of the indebtedness. This is precluded not by the one action rule, but by the anti-deficiency prohibitions of Code of Civil Procedure section 580d.

Mr. Roach is correct in his correction of Mr. McCormick's error.