Law Commons^™

Stop Shutting The Door On Renters: Protecting Tenants From Foreclosure Evictions, Eloisa Rodriguez-Dod

Faculty Publications

This article discusses existing and proposed federal and state law affecting tenants’ rights in foreclosure. As “Foreclosure” signs rapidly join “For Sale” signs across the country, the national foreclosure crisis has not only displaced homeowners, but a plethora of renters as well. The approach taken by states concerning tenants affected by foreclosure varies greatly. Furthermore, a recently enacted Federal law, created specifically to help tenants in foreclosure, does not relieve the uncertainty in resolving this issue. In addition to being the first to critique the new federal law, this article offers recommendations for legislation that may better protect tenants from …

California's Foreclosure Statutes: Some Proposals For Reform, Cynthia Mertens

Faculty Publications

Spurred by the harsh economics of the Great Depression, California enacted several statutes designed to protect pledgors of real property from unfair and often ruinous deficiency judgments. This legislation includes Code of Civil Procedure sections 580a,the fair value section, 580b,the purchase-money anti-deficiency statute, 580d; the nonjudicial foreclosure anti-deficiency statute, and 726, the "one-action" rule. Three decades of judicial interpretation, however, have created a body of case law which fails to advance the legislative purposes upon which the courts purportedly base their decisions.

The time has come for California to substantially revise its Depression-era anti-deficiency legislation in order to express and …