My previous landlord won a judgement against me. I filed to make payment arrangements. The judge dissmissed my payment arrangements because I do not have income. I purchased a house in August 06 and this is the only property that I have. Can they put a lien on my house?:confused:

That will vary depending on your State Law. But generally, the answer is yes they can.

Just curious how you could get a judgement, get out of it and still buy a house? Maybe I'm missing something.

Yes if you Paid for the house, not got a loan, where did that money come from ? And if you have a loan but no job, how are you paying the loan.

But basically yes they can put a lien on your home. They can also find any bank accounts that you have your name on, and attach any of that money also.

And if you are living without income, they can bring you back to court to make you show where this money is coming from,

Thank you, my thoughts exactly. As a landlady that has been put through the wringer with renters... if you owe your past landlord anything, you should face up, make arrangements and pay. My past renters cost so me much, mostly heartache and several thousands dollars damage. So, my thoughts are this, just because some of you may think that those of us can afford to be property owners and "have money?" you are probably wrong. My rental property was left with a mortgage, from the death of my husbands family. We had to assume the mortgage or lose the family home! That gave us 2 mortgages and the crap that goes with being a landlord. The lack of the rental income has forced us in to fighting off bankruptcy. I'd rather be a renter any day than to have to put up with dead beats that think we "owe" them somehting. So, rethink your decision... now that you've bought your home, and think about how YOU would feel if someone trashed it, or whatever...

My previous landlord won a judgement against me. I filed to make payment arrangements. The judge dissmissed my payment arrangements because I do not have income. I purchased a house in August 06 and this is the only property that I have. Can they put a lien on my house?:confused:
YEP!! If the judgement creditor (old landlord) learns of your property purchase and they recorded the judgement, it will show up as a lien against you but not necessarily against your property.

If you re-fi, etc, you will have to pay off the lien to get your loan.

I'll have to somewhat disagree with the others. In most areas, a primary residence is exempt from having a lien for unsecured debt. Even if the landlord can and does put a lien on the house, all that means is you have to pay when you sell, they can't force you to sell to satisfy the lien.

But I also have to wonder how you purchased the house without income.

A creditor who obtains a judjment can in most state attach a lien to your porperty. Some state like Fl, Texas, Kanses, OK to name few will not allow a judgment lien to attach a parties personal residence. However in most states one can file the judgment in the counrty where property is located and it will attach a lien on which they can foreclose. A jusdgment will also allow them to attach any and all assets you now or will own in the future. Judgment normely only last 5 years but can be renewed to extend the time. The jusgment holder can also have you brought in on a discovery action at which time you will be required produce documents and answere all question to discover assets.

A creditor who obtains a judjment can in most state attach a lien to your porperty. Some state like Fl, Texas, Kanses, OK to name few will not allow a judgment lien to attach a parties personal residence. However in most states one can file the judgment in the counrty where property is located and it will attach a lien on which they can foreclose. A jusdgment will also allow them to attach any and all assets you now or will own in the future. Judgment normely only last 5 years but can be renewed to extend the time. The jusgment holder can also have you brought in on a discovery action at which time you will be required produce documents and answere all question to discover assets.

Can you provide support for those statements. From my research MOST states do not allow a lien against a primary residence for an unsecured debt. A lien against a personal residence is usually allowed only when the residence is used for security or in the case of a mechanics lien, where a contractor performed work on the premises and was unpaid. Even where a lien is allowed, the lien holder can generally NOT force foreclosure. Nor will a judgement allow the attachment of "any and all assets". Generally attachment for an unsecured debt, is limited to cash (including some securitites) assets, not personal belongings or property.

The length of judgement varies from area to area. As does the number of times it can be renewed.

The only thing that I think is correct in your post is about a discovery action. But, the court can only compel that the debtor file, it has no power to check the accuracy or completeness of the info provided.

ScottGem: You have asked me to support my answer. I have been liquidating both business and consumer loan for over 30 years. I am presently working for the US Government liquidating loan. I operate in 50% if the state now and have just this week attached liens to several homes and will be foreclosing on them shortly. There is no one place to look this up but must look to state statutes for your answer depending on the state. The answer I gave is a general one due to each state laws. A judgment will attach to personal assets such as bank accounts (checking and savings but not retirement accounts) It will allow one to repo a car that is paid in full and in the debtors name only. If a creditor can prove that a debtor is hiding assets under someone else's name then they can also attach them and sue the party helping them for conversion and fraud. May of the southern state will not allow a judgement to attach to a residence but northern and mid western state will generally. This is why I advised the party to look to the state he or she resides in. A judgment is nothing to mess with and suggest that this party contact an attorney in his area or if can not afford one to contact legal aid who can supply current info on the state they live in.

Correct me if I am wrong here but when someone gets a lien against your property what they are really doing is just attaching the judgement to the "title". We run into this often in the mortgage business where a judgment for money does not show up on the credit but shows up on title. When this happens, the debtor has to pay it in order to clear title. It does not mean they have to sell their house to pay for it. Also I am confused as well as to how this person bought a house with not only no income but a judgement for money on his credit?

Do the loans you deal with Government loans? I can't find a site right now (I'll look again later) but as I recall the UCC exempts personal residences from a lien based on unsecured debt. Since most states subscribe to the UCC I've found that most states have the same exemption.

Also, when you do file a lien against a personal residence, you take a back seat to the mortgage holder and other, secured liens. Generally, such a lien holder cannot force a foreclosure unless there are no primary liens.

Government loans may take a precedence But we are generally talking unsecured debt here.

Yes a judgement will attach bank accounts and other cash assets. And I agree that hiding assets can get one in trouble. But my research and experience is that an unsecured creditor is not likely to get a lien on a primary residence, and even if they do, they will need to wait until the home is sold, they won't be able to force a foreclosure.

Can they put a lien on my house?:confused:Hello confused:

Legal or not, a lien can be recorded against a property just because someone files it. The clerk of court or the county clerk isn't going to question it. They just file what they're handed.

And there it'll sit, in last place, until it's dealt with. Because it's unsecured, it can't be forclosed upon. But, if not satisfied, it'll lurk there until they decide to sell. Even if they get it removed then, and that isn't going to be easy, it's certainly going to kill his future sale.

That's my two cents, and I'm sticking with it.

excon

My previous landlord won a judgement against me. I filed to make payment arrangements. The judge dissmissed my payment arrangements because I do not have income. I purchased a house in August 06 and this is the only property that I have. Can they put a lien on my house?:confused:
Yes, if the landlord finds out you own property, he will file a "judgement lien". The lien will appear on your credit report and lower your credit score. It will keep you from getting a home equity loan (since the landlord has a lien, the banks won't lend you money if they are considered the second). You will not be able to sell the property without paying the lien first. The money will come out of your profit directly from the title or martgage company. You will also have to pay interest (the percentage appears on the judgment from the court). I always tell my clients (landlords) to think of a lien as a "long term IRA". The interest is usually better than you can get from a CD and the property will come up for sale sooner or later. The landlord does have to re-file the lien eventually... which means it will re-appear on your credit report damaging it again.

Being a landlord myself, I would also like to advise you that if the landlord ever finds out about your new house loan, he can and probably will file papers with the court to garnish any potential tax refunds you may be getting back until paid in full. Please don't screw over your landlord. As someone else said in here, we are NOT rich by any means! I have two rental houses and I am in debt big time. If you don't pay, this will haunt you for the rest of your life until it is paid in full.

As I posted earlier, those were my thought exactly. As the "landlady", my renters caused so much damage, lost so much rental income due to them, that now we may lose both of our homes. So many people don't have a conscience so they don't care anyway. On top of my woes, now our mortgage co is sueing the title company and I am just completely overwhelmed by all of it. My hope is everything will be settled soon and can sell out completely and not have to deal with these type of problems or renters ever again. Besides, it sounds like some how you can buy a home with no income and walk off scott free with a judgement.

The question has been raised many times on how someone can buy a home with no income. It's quite simple, really. There are TONS of lenders out there that will do a "stated income" loan with no verification. You have to have pretty good credit scores to do so, but it is quite possible.

I will point out that it is now about 2 weeks since the OP posted and we have received no response about how he purchased a house. My olfactory senses detect a nefarious rodent.

My olfactory senses detect a nefarious rodent.

Likely, quite so. M I C... K E Y... that one?

I just put up my last post because it does answer how it can be done. Someone without income can claim to be self employed and they make "X" amount of money each month under a stated income loan. It is never checked and doesn't go through any kind of verification by the lender. The stating party then pays with whatever means they have for income (SSI, unemployment, pension, disability, drug sales... ) the kind of income the banks either don't want to know about, or would automatically disqualify the loan if they did know about it.

As I said, you have to have strong credit scores to qualify for this kind of loan, and they do charge a higher rate than a full-doc or partial-doc loan, but they do exist.

Nyah M I C... K E Y is not a nefarious rodent, he's a lovable rodent. I'm thinking more along the lines of Williard ;)

I apologize for the delay in thanking everyone for their time and information. I am just able to check my email.

I was not a dead beat tenant. I paid my rent through automatic deduction on time for two years in straight. When I notified my landlord after numerous maintenance issues went unresolved that I was not going to renew the lease they were not happy.

Clearing up my income... I am unemployed because I have twin disable children. They receive SSI and that is our income. My mortgage is through a bank and I did have to provide documents and my interest rate is high.

The judgement... I paid my rent in August on time a usually while awaiting to close and the landlord filed an unlawful detainer. I had no idea what that was or what to do. I look it up on the internet and saw that it had to do with nonpayment of rent... so I gathered up my documents and went to court. Their attorney showed up and asked for a continuance. At the next court date I had my paperwork again and I told the judge that I had paid rent and that I had my documents and he asked the attorney to respond and the attorney stated that his clients live out of town and that they could not be present for court and the judge dismissed it. So I submitted a 30 day notice and a week went by and I received another unlawful detainer and moved out. I was not concerned because I had my documents. Well the attorney continued that date twice and then set it for trial. At trial the attorney entered into evidence the lease which stated that I must submit a 60 day notice, therefore, I was responsible for the rent after I had moved out plus the landlords attorney fees and expenses. I thought the lease had expired and that I was month to month. Well the lease had expired and when they sent a new lease I informed them that I was not going to renew the lease and l continued to pay my rent on time until I moved out. The attorney said that they did know that the house was vacant until a fire and they had to come and assess the damage. Long story short I was in over my head legally and I did not find out about legal aid until after I went to court for the payments.

Payment of the judgement... I did not try to hide anything. The clerk gave me some papers to list my expenses and assets and I listed everything and I filed to make a payment plan. When I came back to court for the payment plan their attorney told the judge that SSI could not listed as income and that basically I could not file for a payment plan. The attorney asked me to pay an amount that I could not afford and the case was dismissed.

First, even if you are on a month to month basis, the terms of the previous lease continue to apply except for expiration date. So, if the lease called for a 60 notice then you were required to give that.

Second, how did you give notice? Do you have proof of it. Third, did you pay a security deposit, was it ever returned? How much was it compared to what you owed?

I would try to get the judgement vacated. I would state that:
a) you gave notice and were not informed that you needed to give more notice. Had you been informed, you would have
b) the landlord has your security deposit which should be applied against the extra 30 days
c) you should not be responsible for court costs since, there was no reason for court. Had the landlord simply informed you about the extra 30 days, you would have paid it

Thanks Scott. The 60 day notice was in the original lease but to be honest I did not think that the lease still applied since I did not sign the new lease. I told that to the judge and she said that is why I needed legal counsel and they would have advised me properly... but I could not afford it.

The lease did have an expiration date but it also stated in another clause that if it was not renewed the original lease would stay in effect and my rent would increase (They accepted the rent and said that they would not increase it) and the increase was added into the judgement. I sent them a written notice by mail.

I did pay a security deposit and I asked in court if that could be used to satisfy the unpaid rent but it was not addressed. So I do not know what to do about that. I have an appointment with Legal Aid and I will bring up your points and asked about getting the judgement vacated.

I think you stand a good chance of getting it vacated. Good Luck

Every state has slightly different housing laws, but here are a few that may apply:

The only time a notice of leaving is not applied, is at the END of a leasing period. You signed a legal agreement that states that it ends at a particular time. It ends at that time, so no "60 day" notice is required. It is always nice for the landlord and the tenant to get together and give notice, but it is the one time that the 60 day notice is not required by the Revised Code. The Revised Code states the amount of notice a tenant has to give a landlord if he intends to leave. That period is usually 30 days. A lease agreement can state a longer period, however, if the tenant quotes the Revised Code in court, it usually wins out. As the code states "The Landlord can not take away the rights of the tenant". As far as attorney fees, unless the judge awarded the landlord reimbursement of the attorney fees, the Revised Code covers that as well.

The purpose of a security deposit is to secure that the tenant takes care of the landlord's property and pays the rent on time. Within 30 days of the tenant moving out, the landlord is required to send a notice in writing as to how the security deposit was utilized, or return the money. If the landlord does not send the letter within 30 days, the tenant can bring a civil action for twice the amount of the security deposit. It doesn't matter how the property was left or what money is owed. The tenant will be awarded twice the amount of the security deposit.

Read a copy of the Revised Code for your state before going any further. It may prove very useful.

Thank you Landlord Advocate and ScottGem. I am gratful for your advise and suggestions. This information gives me preparation when I go to meet with legal aid. I will submit a post after my meeting.