Trustee Sale Attorney for Los Angeles County and Orange County Foreclosures

A California trustee sale is a non-judicial foreclosure: the deed of trust’s power-of-sale clause lets the lender have a trustee auction the property, under Civil Code §2924 and the provisions after it, without a judge. Each step requires a notice, a waiting period, and a recorded document, and those documents are how Fred Yadegar determines, for homeowners in Los Angeles County and Orange County, whether the sale was lawful and whether it produced money that belongs to the former owner.

Begin with the last document, the Trustee’s Deed

After the auction the trustee executes and records a Trustee’s Deed Upon Sale conveying the property to the winning bidder. The deed sets out two numbers: what was owed on the loan, costs included, and what the grantee, the buyer, paid. Subtracting the first from the second gives the surplus before junior liens. The deed is also the document that starts the trustee’s 30-day obligation to mail notice of any surplus (Civ. Code §2924j).

For a Los Angeles County property the file is at the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk in Norwalk; for Orange County, at the Clerk-Recorder in Santa Ana. Each of those documents identifies the trustee by name and gives a trustee sale number. The trustee is a separate company, neither the lender nor the purchaser, and its address on those documents is where a claim is sent.

What happened on the day of the auction

The auction is public and takes place in the property’s own county on a business day. Bidding usually opens with the lender’s credit bid, in which the lender offers part or all of what it is owed, and no cash (Civ. Code §2924h). If no one bids higher, the lender ends up with the property, and no surplus arises. The sale is complete when the trustee accepts the highest bid; third parties pay in cash or by cashier’s check.

Civil Code §2924m adds a post-auction window for some one- to four-unit residential properties: eligible tenant buyers and prospective owner-occupants have up to 45 days to match or beat the winning bid, which can delay the deed. Once the deed is recorded, the money is applied in the order set by §2924k: the trustee’s fees and other costs of sale, the foreclosing loan, junior liens in order of priority, and then the former owner.

The notices that had to come before it

Working backward from the deed, each earlier step had its own requirement. The Notice of Trustee’s Sale has to be recorded, posted at the property and at a public location, mailed to the borrower, and published, with every one of those steps done at least 20 days ahead of the auction (Civ. Code §2924f). It gives the auction’s date, time, and location, how to reach the trustee, and an estimated unpaid balance.

Before that, the Notice of Default was recorded and mailed, and at least three months must separate it from the Notice of Sale (§2924). The Notice of Default identifies the trustee and the beneficiary and quotes the sum required to cure the default; a borrower may reinstate by paying the arrears and permitted costs, not the whole balance, up to five business days ahead of the sale (§2924c). Before any of that, where the loan is a first mortgage on the borrower’s own home, the servicer must reach the borrower, or make diligent attempts, to discuss options other than foreclosure, at least 30 days ahead of recording the Notice of Default (§2923.5). Fewer than three months between the two recorded notices, or a Notice of Sale that was not properly posted or mailed, is a defect, and the remedies for a defective sale have their own page.

Postponements and the 2025 changes

Sales are postponed routinely. A postponement is announced out loud at the time and place set for the sale, and the trustee need not send a fresh written notice unless the accumulated postponements exceed one year (§2924g). AB 2424 brought two changes effective January 1, 2025. Delivering a signed listing agreement lets the borrower push the sale back 45 days. And where the top bid at the first sale would come in under 67 percent of the appraised value, the trustee must postpone by at least seven days (§2924h, as amended). Both changes give the property a better chance of selling at a price that produces a surplus.

After the gavel

The trustee has 30 days from executing the deed to send surplus notices to everyone holding a recorded interest, and a claimant’s written claim, sworn under penalty of perjury, is due 30 days after that mailing (Civ. Code §2924j). Money the trustee cannot distribute is deposited with the superior court of the county where the sale was held. The claim procedure and what follows the sale, meaning the eviction, the buyer’s offer, and the debts that survive, are each covered on their own page.

What to do with the documents you have

• Write down the address and the trustee sale number from any notice you have
• Order all three recorded documents, the default notice, the sale notice, and the deed, or let us order them
• Compare the recording dates of the two notices; fewer than three months apart is a defect
• Subtract the debt with costs from the price paid; a positive result is a surplus before junior liens
• Forward your mail so the trustee’s notice reaches you
• Check the license of anyone offering to recover the money before you sign

Why this office

Fred Yadegar has been licensed in California since 2006, State Bar #244184, and reviews trustee’s sale records for former owners across Los Angeles County and Orange County with one question in mind: which step is missing. A missing step is how a surplus is found and how a defective sale is identified. The claim is handled by a licensed attorney rather than a recovery business, and reviewing your documents the first time is free.