California eviction. Tenant occupied. Foreclosure.

I am a lawyer in CT and practice in this area of the law.  An eviction cannot commence unless an eviction notice was served on you and then a lawsuit for an eviction was served on you.  if you have not been served with a summons by a marshal then the process has not started.  if the bank has in fact taken over the property, and you are under a month to month lease, you can expect that the bank will evict you and that you will not be able to fight it.  I estimate that you have about 4-7 weeks from now that you will have to leave the property.  i suggest looking for another place to live immediately.  i would also stop paying rent and use the money for moving expenses.

Pursuant to federal law a lender who takes possession of a property or a new owner who buys the building at auction has to let a tenant stay for 90 days from the sale or the remainder of their old lease, whichever period is longer.  The rules are a bit different if someone is buying the property to live in; in that case, they can terminate a lease with 90 days notice.

Note: That is 90 days from the sale date.  So you'll have to find out when the exact sale date was; the realtor may be able to help you with this.

Once the applicable time period has run, then an eviction action may be commenced.  Usually it takes about 30 days. The tenant has 5 days to file a response after being served with the landlord's lawsuit. Then, the clerk will schedule a trial within 20 days of the landlord's request. The trial usually takes one day.  The sheriff will come several days after that, if necessary, to remove the tenant if they have not already vacated the premises.

In California in order to start an eviction you must now be served with a 90 day notice to quit. Nothing will happen until you are served this notice. If you have a lease then they must honor the terms unless the buyer of the property is going to move in.

In rent controlled areas that require just cause for evictions such as San Francisco and Oakland they cannot make you move out because they sold the house, unless the owner moves in and then they may have to compensate you.

The guy from CT is giving you bad advice because he doesn't practice in CA and the laws apparently are different here. Some might consider his actions the unauthorized practice of law because he is not licenced here, but his advise is incorrect.