Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Yes, until it is sold. Then you have to pay rent to the new owner. By public auction, I assume you mean a trustee's sale. If so, after the sale you the new owner can kick you out, but must give you 90-days, or until the end of your lease if you have one, whichever is longer.

Mr.McCormick is correct. You are getting the benefit of a place to live; why should you get free rent? I assume you are on a month to month tenancy [if you have a lease for a longer period of time, the new owner will have to honor that lease]. You choose to have a rental situation in which you could give the landlord 30 days notice when ever you wanted and leave the unit; likewise, the landlord could give you a thirty day notice [60 days if you had lived there one year]. So your living there was never secure beyond 30 [60] days. Effectively, how is that any different than what currently exists with the property going through the foreclosure process?

I write separately because the previous responses assume that the "public auction" that you refer to is a nonjudicial foreclosure sale, through what is known as a trustee's sale. You actually need to be a little more specific, as the term "public auction" could refer to several other types of sales:

1) An execution sale pursuant to a judgment against the owner.

2) A tax foreclosure sale, after the owner of the property defaulted on taxes.

3) A judicial foreclosure sale, which is subject to different rules than the trustee's sale as discussed above.

I would need more information along these lines to give you a definitive answer.

Premise: 99% of all public auctions are Trustee Sales

As of May 20, 2009, when President Obama signed the "Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009, leases are no longer preempted by foreclosure. A month-to-month tenant would be entitled to 90 days' notice before eviction could be started.

A buyer planning to move into the property may terminate a lease with 90 days' notice.

Tenants, in Oakland with rent control "just cause" have eviction protection. Foreclosure is not a Just Cause and foreclosure will not justify a termination of tenants occupancy.