Thirteen years ago my mother in law had a property lien put against her home from a company that bought three of her bad credit charge offs. As far as she knows the lien is no longer on her property and she will be checking at the county to make sure. Now she is wanting to buy a second home and use the first one as a rental property. She has since greatly improved her credit. I have two questions. The first one is can the company that placed the lien MAKE her sell the first home they had the lien on since she is buying a second home. My second question is if the lien is no longer active meaning they didn't renew it can they pop up and place the lien on the house she is buying? Is there a certain amount of time after the first lien expires that they have to renew the lien for another 10 years? We are in the state of Texas.

I believe the liens will still be there if they filed them, but they can not make her sell the house, a trip to the recorder of deeds can tell her if the lien is still there.

If she wants another mortgage, or if she tries and sell the property then the lien will have to be paid, and of course if she passes away, the lien will have to be paid by the estate, or the property would be sold then to pay the lien off.

If it appears on the credit report still its quite possible the new Lender for the 2nd home purchase may require it to be paid off -- even though there may be a lien on another property -- depending on her credit situation.