The California right of redemption after foreclosure lets a former owner buy the property back from the foreclosure sale purchaser, but only in one specific situation: the lender foreclosed through the courts, and the court’s decree allowed a deficiency judgment against the borrower. When that applies, you have either three months or one year from the sale date to deposit the full redemption price with the levying officer. In every other California foreclosure, no post-sale redemption right exists.
When the Right Exists
Two things must both be true. First, the foreclosure was judicial, meaning the lender filed a lawsuit and the sale was conducted under a court decree rather than through a trustee’s power-of-sale clause. Second, the court’s decree determined that a deficiency judgment may be ordered against the borrower.1California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 729.010
A deficiency judgment is what a lender can pursue when the sale doesn’t bring in enough to cover the full debt. The legislature tied redemption to that exposure on purpose: a borrower who may still be personally liable gets an extra chance to reclaim the property and settle the account. No deficiency authorization in the decree, no redemption right.
Why Most California Foreclosures Don’t Qualify
Most foreclosures in California are nonjudicial. The lender exercises the power-of-sale clause in the deed of trust, a trustee conducts the sale, and once the trustee’s deed is recorded the sale is final. There is no statutory right of redemption after a nonjudicial sale, period.
Even when a lender does go to court, two antideficiency statutes often cut off the deficiency judgment that would trigger redemption. No deficiency is allowed after a nonjudicial sale under any circumstances.2California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 580d And no deficiency is permitted on a purchase-money mortgage, which includes most loans used to buy an owner-occupied home of four units or fewer, as well as seller-financed loans.3California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 580b
What’s left is a narrow slice. Redemption typically comes into play with non-purchase-money loans (cash-out refinances, commercial loans, hard-money loans) that go through judicial foreclosure. If you defaulted on the original loan you used to buy your house and the lender used a trustee’s sale, the right of redemption does not apply to you.
The Deadline: Three Months or One Year
If the right applies, the clock starts on the day of the foreclosure sale. The length depends on arithmetic, not on anyone’s discretion:
- Three months if the sale price covered the secured debt plus interest and the costs of the lawsuit and sale.
- One year if the sale price fell short of that amount.4California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 729.030
A shortfall at the sale is what produced the deficiency exposure in the first place, so the longer window matches the greater borrower risk. There are no extensions, grace periods, or hardship exceptions.
The levying officer who conducted the sale must promptly notify you of the right and which period applies, delivered in person or by mail.5California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 729.050 Don’t wait for that notice before acting. The deadline runs from the sale date regardless of when the notice reaches you.
What You Have to Pay
The redemption price is not the sale price. It’s everything the foreclosure buyer put into the property, with interest on top. The components are:
- The purchase price at the foreclosure sale.
- Taxes and assessments the buyer paid after the sale.
- Insurance, maintenance, upkeep, and repairs in reasonable amounts.
- Payments the buyer made on any senior lien to protect their interest.
- Interest on each of those amounts at the money-judgment rate, running from the date each was paid until the date you deposit the redemption price.6California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 729.060
If the foreclosure buyer also holds junior liens on the property (liens that were below the one that triggered the foreclosure), the redemption price includes the full amount of those liens plus interest at the same rate.6California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 729.060
The California money-judgment interest rate is 10% per year in most cases.7California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 685.010 On a $400,000 purchase price, that’s roughly $3,333 a month in interest alone.
Credit for Rents and Occupancy
One offset works in your favor. Any rents or profits the buyer collected from the property, or the value of the buyer’s own use and occupancy, reduce the redemption price.6California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 729.060 This can matter a great deal on rental property where the buyer has been collecting checks for months.
Lump Sum Only
Redemption is paid in full to the levying officer before the deadline. No installments, no partial payments, no payment plans. A successor in interest (someone who bought or inherited the borrower’s interest) may also redeem, but has to file proof of that interest with the payment.
How to Redeem, Step by Step
Redemption runs through the levying officer who conducted the sale, usually the county sheriff. It is a deposit-and-transfer procedure, not a negotiation.
- Calculate the full redemption price using the statutory components. This is often the hardest part, because you need the buyer’s actual outlays for taxes, insurance, repairs, and any senior-lien payments made since the sale.
- Deposit that full amount with the levying officer before your redemption deadline.6California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 729.060
- The levying officer tenders the deposit to the foreclosure buyer.
- If the buyer accepts, or if the amount was fixed by court order, the levying officer executes a certificate of redemption, delivers it to you, and immediately records a duplicate with the county recorder.8California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 729.080
Once that certificate is recorded, title returns to you and the foreclosure sale is effectively undone.
If You Disagree With the Price
You may not know what the buyer actually spent. The buyer may claim figures you consider inflated, or dispute your right to redeem at all. When either side disagrees on the amount or the right, the borrower can petition the court to resolve it.9California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 729.070
The petition has to be filed before the redemption period expires. At filing, you deposit the undisputed portion with the levying officer and notify the officer that the petition is pending. The court schedules a hearing within 20 days, and you must serve the buyer with the petition and hearing notice at least 10 days before the hearing.
At the hearing, the borrower carries the burden of proof. The court sets the correct price. If the court’s number is higher than what you deposited, you have 10 days from the order to pay the difference to the levying officer.9California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 729.070 Missing that 10-day window after an order can defeat an otherwise valid redemption.
What Happens to Other Liens
Redemption restores your ownership, but it doesn’t rewind every lien on the property.
Liens that were junior to the foreclosing lien were wiped out at the sale and stay wiped out. If you had a second mortgage or a judgment lien below the loan that foreclosed, redeeming doesn’t revive them. Those junior creditors lost their security interest when the sale closed.
Liens that were senior to the foreclosing lien survive the sale and continue to attach to the property after redemption. If a second-mortgage lender foreclosed while a first mortgage remained in place, that first mortgage is still there when you redeem, and you still owe it.
Priority between competing non-tax liens generally follows the recording date, with earlier-recorded liens ranking higher. Tax liens follow their own priority rules tied to when the tax liability was first created rather than when the lien was recorded.
If You Don’t Redeem in Time
When the period expires, ownership transfers to the foreclosure buyer permanently. There is no late filing and no second window.
The money side can get worse from there. If the sale didn’t cover the full debt (the same scenario that gave you the one-year window), the lender can still pursue a deficiency judgment for the shortfall. That judgment is enforceable through wage garnishment, bank levies, or seizure of other assets.
The foreclosure itself stays on your credit report for seven years from the date of the first missed payment that led to it.10Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If I Lose My Home to Foreclosure, Can I Ever Buy a Home Again? Conventional financing is difficult during that period, though FHA loans may be available sooner depending on the circumstances.
Tax-Defaulted Property Is a Different Rule
If your property was seized for unpaid property taxes rather than a mortgage default, this article’s rules don’t apply. For tax-defaulted property, the right of redemption terminates at the close of business on the last business day before the tax sale begins. Mailed payments must arrive before that cutoff; postmark dates do not count.11California Legislative Information. California Revenue and Taxation Code 3707 There is no post-sale redemption window in that setting unless the sale falls through.