Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Once the buyer is known, cooperate with any efforts by it to learn the terms of your rental agreement. You might contact the buyer and try to arrange a new rental agreement. Perhaps you can offer to be the caretaker until it's resold. Check to see if your locality has a rent stabilization ordinance that might protect you. If you are a bona fide tenant paying market value and have a written lease, the new owner would have to give you a 90-day notice to quit under the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009. (You might have more protection if you record your lease with the county recorder's office.) Often, banks or new owners will offer cash for keys to move early. That might be negotiable and worth avoiding the aggravation. If you do not move within the 90-day period, the bank might then file an unlawful detainer lawsuit against you which could reach judgment in two to three weeks after it's served. Then the sheriff could evict you after judgment in as little as one week, or as much as one month or more, depending on the volume of evictions they're handling.