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- A notice of default is recorded with the county recorder, and the earliest trustee's sale falls three months and 20 days after its recording date.
- For a default you can cure, the notice carries a statement that the lender will give you a written itemization of the entire amount you must pay, if you ask in writing.
- Civil Code section 2943 gives the lender 21 days to answer a written demand for a payoff figure, and after a notice of default that duty covers only a demand received before the notice of sale is first published.
- A recorded request for notice, or the mailing section 2924b requires within a month of recording, can put a copy of your notice in other hands.
- Spend the first week reading the notice, asking for both figures in writing, putting the dates on a calendar, and talking to a listing agent and an attorney.
A notice of default is the recorded document that starts a trustee's sale under the power of sale in your deed of trust. Count from the recording date shown on it, because the sale cannot happen sooner than three months and 20 days later.
Take a notice with a recording date of September 22, 2026. Three months later is December 22. The notice of sale could record as early as December 17, and the earliest lawful sale date is January 11, 2027. The real sale date will be whatever the notice of sale says. It can be later than that. It cannot lawfully be earlier.
What is a notice of default?
Your deed of trust named a trustee and gave it a power of sale, which lets the trustee sell the building without a lawsuit by the steps that begin at Civil Code section 2924. The notice of default is the first of those steps that anyone outside the loan can see. Only whoever now holds the loan, the original or a substituted trustee, or the holder's designated agent may record it, and it goes on record with the county recorder, which for a building in Los Angeles County is the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. It has to state the nature of each breach the lender knows of and the lender's election to sell. Section 2924 then makes the trustee wait at least three months before giving notice of the sale.
From the recording date until five business days before the sale date, section 2924c lets you reinstate a monetary default on a loan that was accelerated before its maturity date. A loan that reached maturity unpaid is due in full on its own terms, and catching up on missed payments does not cure it.
If the building is also your home, has one to four units and secures a first loan made for personal, family or household purposes, section 2923.5 required the servicer to contact you, or try to, and then wait 30 days before recording.
What the notice tells you, in its own words
For a default that reinstatement can cure, section 2924c writes out a statement the notice has to include. It makes you a promise: "Upon your written request, the beneficiary or mortgagee will give you a written itemization of the entire amount you must pay."
It also says outright that a sale is still open to you: "Notwithstanding the fact that your property is in foreclosure, you may offer your property for sale, provided the sale is concluded prior to the conclusion of the foreclosure." The condition is timing. Escrow has to close before the foreclosure is finished, or the sale date has to move.
The itemization comes on written request, so that request is the first letter to send.
Get the reinstatement and payoff figures in writing
You need two numbers, and they answer different questions. The reinstatement amount is what it takes to cure the default and keep the loan. The payoff is what it takes to retire the loan entirely, which is the figure a sale has to cover.
| Figure | What it tells you | Where the right to it comes from | When to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reinstatement itemization | The entire amount to cure the default and keep the loan | The statement section 2924c puts in the notice of default | This week, in writing. Reinstatement ends five business days before the sale date. |
| Payoff demand statement | Everything needed to satisfy all obligations the loan secures | Civil Code section 2943, within 21 days of a written demand | This week, in writing, and before the notice of sale is first published |
Under section 2943, a payoff demand statement sets out the amounts required, as of the day the lender prepares it, to satisfy everything the loan secures. It also carries enough information to work out the payoff day by day for up to 30 days. The lender has 21 days after it receives your written demand. A demand that arrives on October 1 is due an answer by October 22.
That schedule has a limit once a notice of default is recorded. The lender has no obligation to deliver the statement on the statute's terms unless it received the written demand before the first publication of a notice of sale. So send the demand now, while nothing has been published. The lender may also ask first for reasonable proof that you are entitled to the figure, and the 21 days then run from the day the proof arrives.
Others may ask too. A successor in interest, the holder of a subordinate lien of record and a licensed escrow holder are all entitled persons under section 2943, so once a sale is in escrow, escrow can make the demand itself.
Who else may already have a copy?
Under section 2924b, anyone may record a request for copies of the notice of default and the notice of sale under a deed of trust, and a deed of trust can carry that request in its own text. A second lender or another lienholder that recorded one has asked to be sent this notice.
The same section requires copies to go out within one month after recording, by registered or certified mail, to people it lists. The list includes the holder of a lease or a contract of sale on the property that was recorded after the deed of trust. Each lien of record is also one a sale has to pay or clear, and how escrow handles a second loan, a judgment or a tax lien depends on the kind of lien it is.
The notice written for tenants comes later. Section 2924.8 requires a separate notice to residents, posted and mailed with the notice of sale.
Your first week, in order
- Read the notice for its dates. Write down the recording date shown on it and the breach it describes, and keep the notice with the note and the deed of trust.
- Ask for both figures in writing. Send the request for the reinstatement itemization and the section 2943 payoff demand the same day, by a method that proves when each one arrived.
- Put the dates on a calendar. Enter the recording date in the date tool on the California foreclosure timeline. It returns the three-month mark, the earliest day the notice of sale can record and the earliest lawful sale date. When the notice of sale arrives, add its sale date.
- Check the other bills against the building. Look at the latest property tax bill, since unpaid property taxes run on a separate county calendar with its own penalties.
- Talk to an attorney and a listing agent. The attorney reads the notice, the note and any guaranty. The agent prices the building from its rent roll and tells you whether a sale can close before the earliest sale date.
Whether the notice was prepared and delivered correctly, whether the itemization is right, and what a personal guaranty commits you to are questions for a California real estate attorney. Shaya is a listing agent, and what he can give you this week is a price for the building and an honest read on how long a sale would take.
What changes when the notice of sale arrives
The notice of sale turns the minimum into a real date. It has to be posted, published and recorded at least 20 days before the sale under section 2924f, and its first publication is the point after which a new payoff demand no longer has to be answered in 21 days.
Reinstatement then runs until five business days before the date it gives. On residential property of one to four units, a listing agreement that the trustee receives at least five business days before the sale moves the sale back at least 45 days under AB 2424. On five or more units a listing earns no statutory postponement. Under Civil Code section 2924g the sale moves only if the lender agrees, the trustee decides to, a court orders it, or the law stays it, as the automatic stay does when a bankruptcy petition is filed, and a lender can ask the bankruptcy court to lift that stay. Whether a filing makes sense is a question for a bankruptcy attorney. For a sale you control, the three months before the notice of sale are the time to list.