It is not very often that I get to chat with the “town criers” who auction properties to the public at trustee sales in non-judicial foreclosure, but I have met Mike, a town crier at one of the Northern California county sales, by a number of years. Frankly, his comments pointed to something he hadn’t questioned for a long time.

I have “accused” these auctioneers of being very focused and limited participants who cried over scheduled sales, walked away unaffected by the completion of their limited daily tasks, and lived a more or less sheltered life away from the hustle and bustle of the rest. of us. call to live. I implied that they saw little of the raw life that we, the bidders at the trustee’s sale, regularly found ourselves immersed in: actual exposure to foreclosed properties. I was wrong.

Mike made an exception to my description of the responsibilities of these protected beings and told me that “whiners” was not an adequate description of what they did. Yes, they reviewed today’s sales schedule and went through the bidding process with those who qualified. They also have other important tasks. For example, they must organize all scheduled sales for presentation on the courthouse steps at scheduled times in a reasonable and understandable manner when the trustees give them the signal that the final steps, the trustee sales, must be taken now – – or postponed or canceled.

These auctioneers also tag properties scheduled for sale in trustees’ sales. They have the responsibility to formally notify the occupants (homeowners and non-owners) occupying the property by posting a notice (usually on the front door of residential properties). These notices, called Trustee Sales Notices, let occupants know that legal action will be taken against property owners unless foreclosure recipients (lenders) are paid principal, interest, and charges shown in Notices on explicit future dates. If such payments are not legally received, the beneficiaries will order the trustees identified in the foreclosure trust deeds to sell the properties at the locations described at the scheduled times. Trustees typically appoint local representatives whom we call town criers to physically handle the actual sale.

The point here is that auctioneers have a broader set of responsibilities in the final steps of foreclosure than I realized. They also see the properties that they offer to the public and therefore have a more than limited perception of the physical properties that includes prior knowledge of the location of the properties and, in a very limited sense, the appearance of the properties.

This fairly lengthy process typically includes taking photos of the properties after the notices are posted in conspicuous places. Although the California Civil Code does not specifically require such validation, the auctioneers take photographs and the trustees may offer them to demonstrate the completion of the appropriate actions to properly notify the offending trustees that legal action will now be taken. Settlors then know that failure to respond can cause catastrophic property losses.