Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Declaring homestead protects some of your equity from involuntary liens recorded after the declaration is recorded. You have several problems here. The trust deeds are voluntary liens. The trust deeds are presumably already recorded. You probably don't have any equity. So, the answer is no.

No. It does not matter how much equity you have in your house, because homesteads only provide protection from sale from creditors enforcing judgment liens.

The homestead statutes are designed to protect the value of the homestead from judgment liens, but they do not impair the right of a declared homestead owner to encumber the homestead with consensual liens, such as a deed of trust securing a promissory note executed by the declarant of the homestead.

If a declared homestead owner defaults on a debt secured by a consensual lien, the homestead is not protected from a nonjudicial foreclosure, that is, the homestead laws cannot be used to prevent a private sale pursuant to a power of sale conferred by the trust deed or mortgage securing the debt, as distinguished from preventing an execution of judgment sale. (Code of Civ. Proc., � 703.010 subd. (b).)

The homestead declaration does not restrict or limit any right to encumber the declared homestead. �A homestead declaration does not restrict or limit any right to convey or encumber the declared homestead.� (Code of Civ. Proc., � 704.940.)