I am a real estate agent with a seller client who must sell her home; she is divorced and her X signed a quit claim deed 2 years ago. Prior to the divorce being final and prior to the signing of the quit claim deed, her X had a judgement lien from Capital One recorded against the property. Capital One will not even give us the pay off amount nor will they discuss anything regarding his account without permission from the X - privacy issues and such. He is gone and very angry - he will not cooperate by giving us permission to negotiate with Capital One on his account - even though it will satisfy his debt. The house must been sold or go to foreclosure. We have a buyer under contract and we have approval for the short sale from the lender who holds the mortgage on the house. The buyer's lender does not want to provide financing for the buyer until this judgement lien has been removed. What can we do to remove the lien? Why won't Capital One give us a pay off amount - they were brought up to date on the facts and understand if they don't negotiate a pay off with us the property will go to foreclosure and Capital One will get nothing. That's when they said without disclosure/permission from the account holder they are bound to keep his information privacy - even if that means they get zero.

If the judgment lien is recorded, have you researched it in the county records to see what the amount is? That I believe is public record information available to anyone, not just the ex or Capital One. Liens against property are recorded like anything else at the county clerk's office so they will be recorded as paid off so the property deed can be transferred to another person.

Does a review of the divorce decree give the seller anything to stand on in so far as placing the husband in contempt? Is this a separate debt that he is responsible for under the decree for which she can bring him to court under a contempt citation? I agree with what has been said above: the lien is based upon a judgement for dollars, cents, and costs, and maybe attorney fees. You may find an attorney's name, address, and phone number if you review the lawsuit.