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While consulting a title agency is a good start, ultimately, I think a Real Estate attorney is the best option for the OP because of the confusion/ambiguity of this situation. Just my $.02 worth. It won't be cheap, but well worth the investment IMHO.
While consulting a title agency is a good start, ultimately, I think a Real Estate attorney is the best option for the OP because of the confusion/ambiguity of this situation. Just my $.02 worth. It won't be cheap, but well worth the investment IMHO.
That could be, but I do know our local title agencies routinely help people clear their own titles if it's a matter of paying off old debts or getting releases from the lien-holders. As with everything, the details will make all the difference.
Where I live a title agency will do a preliminary title search for free. It would show any liens on the property. Liens aren't really that uncommon, basically all it means is that you owe money to somebody and when you sell the property, they will be paid out of escrow so the buyer isn't inheriting anything they shouldn't be.
But here's why its important to clear it up before then. Let's say you find a lien against you that isn't legitimate. You don't want the proceeds of your home sale to be paid to a false lienholder.
We recently saw a strange one- A person wanted to buy a property and the title search uncovered an old PMM against the title with a balance due of about $15k. The property had been bought and sold a few times because the holder of the PMM was deceased and nobody could find an heir to claim it. Each buyer had to accept the risk that an heir could come forth at anytime and renew the lien if they had a legal claim to it. The situation was only made possible because it was once a tax sale and the county could auction it off with this weird potential lien still attached to it. Long story short, the property has never been built on because its ineligible for a mortgage because no bank is going to accept second place as a lien holder, even though the existing lien holder is not known or may not exist.
All of this came out of a free preliminary title report.
I don't think a creditor is ignorant of how this all works, so I don't see how they would up and decide not to reissue a lien if the time table you mentioned is accurate. In any case, there are always a number of free or low cost sliding scale legal people you should talk to and find out for sure what is what.
stephenMM, thank you. I appreciate your help and advice.
A “Mechanics Lien” is filed by a Company or a Contractor who did work on your House and they weren't paid.
Did you have any work on your House and you didn't pay the Bill or there was a dispute over the services rendered?
Bobdreamz, thank you for your help. No I did not have any work done on my house or not pay a bill due to a dispute over the services rendered, however that was about the only thing listed as being a "lien" (which were not mine by the way) when I went to check the records down at my Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk office.
Sometimes a co-owner of a property has a lien issued against another property for which they also hold co-title.
You should check all the co-owners of all properties which you own now or in the past.
The court can issue a lien against any property owned wholly or in part by the person against whom the lien is issued.
All liens are subject to, and regulated, by state and local laws.
Lillie767, thank you for your help. I appreciate it. I only own one piece of property (my house). I am the sole owner of it and there were never any co-owners involved. Nor have I ever owned any other property (other than my house) solely or with anyone else.
Why didn’t you pay the three people who won judgments against yourself?
wamer27, that is a very long and detailed story to explain in this forum. However I will spare you and all of the other readers of my post all of the gory details as to why this happened. Thank you for your interest though.
Last edited by user9430961; 01-07-2024 at 10:07 AM..
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