I live in Ca. in a mobile home park . I have tried to sell it with no luck. I am not allowed to rent it here in the park. We have found a home we like and our offer has been excepted and the papper work is going through. I owe $27000 on the modular home it is a 1989 model. What am I looking at if it is foreclosed or repossesed. Can my new home have a lean against it or other items like vehicles? And can bank accounts or wages be touched? Again I live in California and need help now. I haven't signed the loan documents yet on the new home but have put up $1000 in earnist money. I figure that I will loose now if I back out of the deal on the sale. I would like to know my options.

I live in Ca. in a mobile home park . I have tried to sell it with no luck. I am not allowed to rent it here in the park. We have found a home we like and our offer has been excepted and the papper work is going through. I owe $27000 on the modular home it is a 1989 model. What am i looking at if it is foreclosed or repossesed. Can my new home have a lean against it or other items like vehicles? And can bank accounts or wages be touched? Again I live in California and need help now. I havent signed the loan documents yet on the new home but have put up $1000 in earnist money. I figure that I will loose now if I back out of the deal on the sale. I would like to know my options.


Never a good idea to have a foreclosure on your credit report - and it could hit at or near closing on the new place and really cause a problem.

If the mobile home is sold short, sure, the lender can get a judgment against you for the balance. Keep in mind they will subtract fees and interest and so forth from the eventual sale price which further increases what you owe.

You can't buy a mobile home, walk away, have it foreclosed and keep on walking.

Well normally it will be a repo not really a foreclosure since it will be a title on it, not a deed.

But anyway, if you don't pay, and walk away ( you should not have bought another home before this one is sold) so what happens is that 27,000 loan will get late fees and other fees, then it will get legal fees added, and court fees. At that point then there will be sell fees added when they sell it.
When this happens your 27,000 loan will end up about 35000 to 40,000 and then they deduct the price they get for the home. If you can't sell it for 27,000, it will sell a lot less at a repo sell, most likely for 10,000 to 15000. So you will end up still owing them about 20,000 to 30,000 on that same loan after they sell the home.

Now after they get a judgement, they can look at garnishing your wages, look at attaching your bank accounts ( which is what they want to do first to actually get the money first) then they may consider putting a lien on the new property if they can not collect any other way.

[QUOTE=Fr_Chuck]well normally it will be a repo not really a foreclosure since it will be a title on it, not a deed.


Good catch - I never thought of this.

Otherwise... we concur.

A home with a title is like a car and the way it is financed. The loan is treated just like a car loan or chattel loan. Lenders do like to take you to the cleaners when they have to sell the property and take you to court for whatever they think they can tack onto the 27,000 you owe. You said you can't sell it. I find that hard to believe as any affordable housing is being snapped up. Have you at least advertised the home? Being a 1989 if it is in good condition this should have sold. You must be doing something wrong or the home is filled with too much furniture or something like that to disuade buyers.

Anti-deficiency laws:


In California the lender can repossess the home but does not have the option of suing the borrower for additional money owed on the loan.21 (21 National Consumer Law Center, Repossessions and Foreclosures (5th ed. 2002), p. 364. )

No deficiency judgment is allowed after the sale of a manufactured home for failure to pay off the balance of a manufactured home loan unless the deficiency is the result of damage to the house.22 (22 Cal. Health and Safety Code, 18038.7. )

The California Court of Appeals has ruled that the law's intent is to protect against consumers paying for mobile homes that they no longer own.23 (23 Lexsee 185 CAL. APP. 3D 1291; Bank of Sonoma County, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Norman B. Dorries, Defendant and Appellant. )