California Courts sometimes reserve jurisdiction over parties or an action after the case has gone to final judgment, for various reasons. Jurisdiction is generally the power to hear and determine the claims of the parties. Some examples of court’s holding on to jurisdiction are to to enforce settlement in an…
Homeowners associations in common interest developments have the ability to conduct a non-judicial foreclosure to collect delinquent assessment fees. However, the law places numerous restrictions on the association’s ability to foreclose to collect assessments. One of those restrictions is in provided the homeowner a right of redemption. I have written…
It is well established that California real property owners have duties toward guests and people they invite to the property to let them know about concealed dangerous conditions. Even a foreclosing lender who takes possession of a house has a duty to disclose what they should know about, and the…
It is a rule of California real estate that whenever a greater estate and a lesser estate in the same parcel of real property are held by the same person, without an intermediate interest or estate, the lesser estate generally merges into the greater estate and is extinguished. A greater…
California real estate transactions usually have provisions requiring that the parties arbitrate any dispute, rather than file a lawsuit. Sometimes they file suit anyway, and an opponent in the real estate contract dispute makes a motion to the court to order the parties to arbitrate, rather than litigate. The Code…
Tender California law requires a plaintiff asking the court to set aside a foreclosure to offer to pay the full debt (called a “tender”). The general rule is that a plaintiff may not challenge the propriety of a foreclosure sale without offering to repay what they borrowed. The idea is…
Many California real property owners have challenged lenders foreclosure proceedings based on state and federal laws enacted the past few years to help homeowners during the real estate collapse.. In most cases, the courts have found that the laws do not create new, enforceable rights, with a few exceptions. Mis-interpretation…
In February I published a blog about a California court that would not take judicial notice of a document on a Federal Agency website. It dealt with the FDIC sale of Washington Mutual mortgage loan accounts to JP Morgan Chase. JPMorgan was conveyed all the assets, but none of the…
Generally, in California to prove a claim for fraud and deceit based on concealment, the plaintiff must prove five elements: (1) the defendant must have concealed or suppressed a material fact, (2) the defendant must have been under a duty to disclose the fact to the plaintiff, (3) the defendant…
A deed of trust represents security for the loan. It has several parties- a) the trustor, who is the borrower and owner of record for the real property that is security for the loan; b) the beneficiary, who is the lender whose debt is secured by the deed of trust;…