What happens to any open Deed of Trust cases after Foreclosure

[Apoorva Agrawal]

Hi All,

I am looking to bid on a property which is planned for non-Judicial Foreclosure by the mortgage company here in King County, WA. I did the title search and have two questions. It will be great if you can please offer help.

Q1. I found some utility and mechanics liens which will remain past Foreclosure. But I am not able to understand what happens to WA state department (Revenue, State Labor and Industries, Employment Security) Tax warrants (Judgements) against the owner of the property. I know Tax Liens remain but I don't know what happens to Tax Warrants related to owner because of his businesses, do they remain as well ? And do they need to be paid by the new owner ? 

Q2. In the title search I came across a Deed Of Trust against the property from 2018 which was signed by the last owner promising to pay for his legal costs to a attorney (beneficiary). When I did King county superior court case search, I see that there is an open case related to this 'Deed of trust from 2018' against the owner of the house and hearing for this case has just started this week. Basically the beneficiary from this 2018 DOT is requesting the court to allow Judicial Foreclosure to recover fees for the legal services that he offered to the owner. As per the court documents the beneficiary of this deed is claiming that the deed of trust encumbers the property hence a Judicial Foreclosure should be allowed.

So I am trying to understand what happens to this open case if the non-Judicial foreclosure auction completes before the decision is made on the deed of trust court case. Will the court case be thrown away ? Or will it cloud the title and therefore the new owner will not be able to re-finance or sell the property ? In any case will the new owner have to pay for the legal fees of the old owner related to this 2018 deed of trust? If Deed of trust is junior to the foreclosing mortgage then do they expire after non-judicial Foreclosure ?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,