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...

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Originally Posted by jrsakho

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:

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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.

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Originally Posted by atwood

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.

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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.

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Originally Posted by jrsakho

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

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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

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Originally Posted by jrsakho

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:

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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.

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

My olfactory senses detect a nefarious rodent.

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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 ;)