Lender Has No Duty to Monitor and Correct Public Records
Mortgage lenders tend to pay a lot of attention to the real property securing their loans, as they should. Before the loan is made, lenders scrutinize…
Cotenant Owner vs. Junior Creditor — Battle for Sale Proceeds from Senior Creditor Foreclosure
After a foreclosure sale by a senior creditor, California’s Civil Code section 2924k governs how the sale proceeds are applied in the following order of priority:…
A Notice of Trustee’s Sale Does Not Necessarily “Disturb Possession”
Flashback: Five years ago, Money and Dirt covered the Salazar v. Thomas opinion from California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal holding that a Notice of Default does not…
Rescinding a Trustee’s Sale Based on Lien Position “Mistake” — Good Luck With That
The statutory scheme governing nonjudicial foreclosure — found in California Civil Code sections 2924 through 2924k — aims for speed, efficiency, and finality. For example, a…
Is an APN Sufficient to Describe Property in a Deed of Trust?
To be enforceable, a deed of trust must sufficiently describe the real property security. There are several different ways to describe real property. Commonly used methods…
Beware “Super-Priority” Receivership Liens
In California, lien priority is usually resolved by a straightforward examination of the time of creation or recordation with the County Recorder, which gives “constructive notice”…
CC&R “Subordination” Provisions and Lien Priority
In California, priority between competing liens on the same real property is usually determined by the “first in time, first in right” rule. Under that rule,…
The Difference Between a “Voidable” and “Void” Assignment of a Deed of Trust, and Why It Matters
For nearly three years, one of the rapidly developing areas of California foreclosure law has focused on whether a borrower has “standing” to challenge a wrongful…
A Lump Sum Payment of Delinquent Taxes Isn’t Enough for Adverse Possession
As detailed in prior posts here and here, to establish a claim for adverse possession, a plaintiff must prove the following elements: Possession must be by…
Adverse Possession and Prescriptive Easements Are Not The Same
In our prior post — Equitable Easements and “Innocence” — we covered a portion of the California Fifth District Court of Appeal’s opinion in Hansen v.…