Real property: deficiency judgments.

Existing law provides that no deficiency judgment lies in any event after a sale of real property or an estate for years for failure of the purchaser to complete the contract of sale, or under a mortgage or trust deed given to the vendor to secure payment of the balance of the purchase price of real property, or under a mortgage or trust deed on a dwelling, as specified, given to a lender to secure repayment of a loan which was in fact used to pay all or part of the purchase price of the dwelling. This bill would provide that a loan used to pay all or part of the purchase price of real property or an estate for years includes a subsequent loan, mortgage, or deed of trust that refinances or modifies the original loan, but only to the extent that the subsequent loan was used to pay debt incurred to purchase the real property. The bill would become operative on June 1, 2011, and would apply only to actions filed after its operative date.