Behind on Payments in California: Your Options, the Timeline and the Two Numbers

If you are behind on your mortgage in California, selling is only one of several options, and usually not the first one to raise. Your lender can discuss reinstatement, a repayment plan or a loan modification, a HUD-approved housing counselor can help you weigh them at no charge to you, and a short sale or a sale are the paths that end with the house changing hands. California law sets the order of events: the servicer has to contact you before a notice of default is recorded, at least three months must pass after that notice before a sale can be noticed, and the right to reinstate normally runs until five business days before the sale date. Knowing where you stand on that timeline, and how much equity each path would leave you, is what turns a frightening letter into a decision you can make.

This guide is the starting point for our behind on payments, liens and tax defaults series. It describes the process and the choices. It does not replace your lender, a housing counselor or an attorney, and it never promises an outcome.

Start with the options that keep the house

Every one of these is a conversation with your lender or servicer, and every one of them comes before a sale.

• Reinstatement. Civil Code section 2924c lets the borrower cure a monetary default by paying the amounts in default, plus permitted costs and fees, and the loan then continues as if the default had not happened. The notice the statute requires tells you this right "is normally five business days prior to the date set for the sale of your property."
• A repayment plan or more time. The same statutory notice says you and your lender may agree in writing, before the notice of sale is posted, to give you more time to cure "by transfer of the property or otherwise," or to set a schedule of payments.
• A loan modification. Only your lender can offer one. The California courts' self-help guide notes that a lender cannot move ahead with the foreclosure while your application for help is being considered, a practice it calls "dual tracking."
• A HUD-approved housing counselor. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says these agencies provide foreclosure prevention counseling at no charge to the homeowner, and lists its Find a Counselor tool and the HOPE Hotline at (888) 995-4673. Civil Code section 2923.5 requires your servicer to give you HUD's number during its first contact.
• An attorney. If anything about the default, the amounts or the notices looks wrong, that is a legal question, and the courts' guide notes you can sue if the lender breaks these protections.

Mr. Cali Offers does none of the above. We do not offer foreclosure consulting, loan modification or legal services, and no buyer can promise that a foreclosure will end. What we can do is show you, in writing, what a sale would leave you, so the sale option is measured honestly against the others.

The California timeline, and where each option fits

When a loan is secured by a deed of trust with a power of sale, foreclosure can happen without a court case; the courts' guide calls this nonjudicial foreclosure. The steps below are drawn from the Civil Code. Your own dates are on the notices you receive.

1. Before anything is recorded. Under Civil Code section 2923.5, the servicer must contact you in person or by phone to assess your finances and explore options, and cannot record a notice of default until 30 days after that contact or after a documented effort to reach you. Every option is open here, and this is the best moment to call a counselor.
2. The notice of default is recorded. Civil Code section 2924 requires it to be filed with the recorder of the county where the house sits. For a Pomona or Claremont house that is the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder; for an Ontario or Rancho Cucamonga house it is the San Bernardino County Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk. The courts' guide calls this "the start of the formal and public foreclosure process." Read more in what a notice of default means and what it does not.
3. At least three months pass. Section 2924 says not less than three months shall elapse from the filing of the notice of default before notice of sale is given. This is the stretch most people call pre-foreclosure. Reinstatement, a written agreement with the lender, a short sale and a sale are all still possible.
4. The notice of sale. Civil Code section 2924f requires the notice to be posted in a public place and on the property, and first published, at least 20 days before the sale date.
5. Five business days before the sale. Under section 2924c the reinstatement right ends here. If the sale is postponed by more than five business days, the right revives until five business days before the new date.
6. The trustee sale. An auction to the highest bidder. After it, the choices above are gone.

Behind on property taxes or a special tax

Missed property taxes are a separate track with a longer clock. Under Revenue and Taxation Code section 3691, the county tax collector gains the power to sell residential property five years or more after it becomes tax-defaulted. Your county treasurer-tax collector can tell you exactly where your parcel stands. Taxes can also reach the mortgage: section 2924c lists failure to pay taxes, assessments and insurance among the defaults a lender can act on.

In newer tracts in Rancho Cucamonga, such as parts of Etiwanda, Victoria and Terra Vista, and in much of Ontario Ranch, a community facilities district special tax is billed on the San Bernardino County property tax bill. An owner behind on the mortgage is often behind on that line too, and any arrears are paid through escrow at closing. Our page on selling with tax liens or unpaid property taxes covers that side.

The two numbers, drawn against the date

A sale is worth considering only if it leaves you more than the alternatives, in the time you actually have. That is why every house we see gets two numbers on one sheet: an as-is cash offer and an open-market read. The open-market read is a preliminary estimate, not an appraisal. It is not an automated estimate either, and it is not a certified appraisal, which only a licensed appraiser can produce. Each column shows the comps, the line-item deductions and the net, using the payoff and reinstatement figures you request from your lender.

LineAs-is cash saleListing on the open market

Price

-

-

Less: loan payoff, including arrears and foreclosure fees

-

-

Less: property tax and special tax arrears

-

-

Less: other recorded liens

-

-

Less: repairs, clean-out and selling costs

-

-

Estimated net to you

-

-

Time the path needs

-

-

Time left before the sale date

-

-

When listing wins. If the sale date is far enough away for a listing to find a buyer, get through the buyer's loan and appraisal, and close, and the house shows well, the open market will usually net more than a cash buyer. Then the written recommendation says to list, and you are introduced to a designated local expert, an independently licensed agent who works your neighborhood. Mr. Cali Offers never lists a house. See when we tell a seller to list instead.

When the cash column matters. When the calendar is short, or the house needs work a financed buyer's lender will not accept, the cash number may be the one that can close in time, once title is clear and the payoff is confirmed.

When neither works. If the payoff and liens are larger than the house is worth, no ordinary sale pays them off. That is the territory of short sales, when you owe more than the house is worth, which only your lender can approve.

Two California rules that protect you if you sell

The Home Equity Sales Contracts Act. When a notice of default is recorded on a one-to-four unit home that you live in, Civil Code section 1695.1 calls an investor who buys it an "equity purchaser." Section 1695.4 then gives you the right to cancel the contract until midnight of the fifth business day after you sign, or until 8 a.m. on the day of the trustee sale, whichever comes first.

The foreclosure consultant rules. Civil Code section 2945.1 covers anyone who, for pay, says they will halt or postpone a sale, get forbearance, help you reinstate or save the house. Be careful with anyone who asks for money up front to do those things, and check with a housing counselor first.

What this looks like in practice

These are the kinds of files that come in, described without names or figures.

• A Pomona owner several payments behind after a job loss, with a notice of default recorded and no sale date yet. The first conversation is about the lender and a counselor; the two numbers come second.
• An Ontario owner with a sale date set and a house that would sell well listed, if there were time to list it. The sheet shows both nets and the time each one needs.
• A Rancho Cucamonga owner behind on the mortgage and the special tax line, who needs both reflected in the net.

Next step

Talk to your lender and a HUD-approved counselor first. If a sale is one of the options you want measured, read how two numbers are mapped against your trustee sale date, or call (909) 498-3977. There is no cost and no obligation to get the two numbers and the written report.

Sources

• California Civil Code section 2923.5 (contact before a notice of default): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Civil Code section 2924 (notice of default and the three-month period): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Civil Code section 2924c (reinstatement and the required notice): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Civil Code section 2924f (notice of sale): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Civil Code sections 1695.1 and 1695.4 (home equity sales contracts): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Civil Code section 2945.1 (foreclosure consultants): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Revenue and Taxation Code section 3691 (tax collector's power to sell): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• Judicial Branch of California, Your rights in a nonjudicial foreclosure: selfhelp.courts.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, How do I find a HUD-approved housing counselor?: consumerfinance.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• City of Rancho Cucamonga, Special Districts: cityofrc.us, accessed October 31, 2026

Mr. Cali Offers is not a law firm, a lender or a housing counseling agency. Cash offers come from independent buyers and investors who buy for their own account and may resell for profit; a cash offer is generally below what the open market would bring. Any value shown is a preliminary estimate, not an appraisal. Nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice.