20 years ago my parents bought a house in virginai. Now my Mother is trying to get a new house built. My Father died in 2000. While trying to get the loan for the new house it was discovered that there is a large lien on this house since before my parents bought the house.
The atterny who handled the closeing lost all his paper work in a flood. We can not find out who hold the lien on the house. Is there any way to clear this up. The lien is for around $40,000.

Go to the county land records office at the General District court house. You can do a title search yourself but it is a little daunting until you figure out the filing system. Next best thing is to engage a title search company to do a title search. Attorney should have suggested this. If the lien was placed on the property before you parents purchased it should have shown up during the title search at that time.

Question for you mother, "Did you purchase title insurance when purchasing the home." If so, you can just call title insurance company.

A 20 year old, inactive lien sounds like a possible error in county records. Probably best to engage title search company.