(A basement apartment or carriage house is actually the only way you can do short-term rentals full-time legally here in Denver.)

Fiction: I like legal thrillers, stuff like John Grisham. 

Now if you never met your tenant and had a outside property management company and never personally inspected the property you would likely have a perfect defense to that claim but even then they could sue you and you would have legal fees etc to defend it.  

I'm sure this is a legal questions, but any ideas on is the lien enforceable on the new owner?

I did contact the borrower, & she volunteered to just send me the interest due.I will send her a Release of Promissory Note.The title co. did not provide any sub & recon document for us to sign.Their legal dept. copied & pasted some Calif regulations into an email & said they were done.A realtor friend has one I can use, but honestly, I'm going to get some help to fill it out.I looked up the title co on Yelp & see they have horrible reviews from what appear to be legitimate, experienced people.  

Borrower loses legal right to reinstate in about two days so, unless they are stroking a check to reinstate within two days, or a check to pay it off in the next seven days, BK would be the only thing that would guarantee a hold on a pending sale...if you can't compel them just because. 

Welcome to the party Shawn!

However, the resident refused to sign based on the premise that the contract had already been signed by both parties and represented a legal contract.

If there are no toys and the flowers are all dead from last year, that's another sign that it might be unoccupied.I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. 

If you do choose to do yourself be sure to check codes as some things you can’t legally do yourself with a rental property.