I found out during closing of my escrow that a lien was place due to a lawsuit that I was never notified of. I went to the court after filing a Motion to Vacate Judgement. Per the judge's findings, it was determined I was never properly notified so the Motion was granted. The findings state that the default and judgement are vacated and set aside. It also states that all "writes, levies, and abstracts are recalled and quashed." The judge did this in order for my escrow to close without liens. The Title co. is refusing to remove the lien until my court hearing next month. Is this legal?

The title company cannot remove a lien, all they do is report the current status. You need to go to the Recorder of deeds and have the lien removed based on the court order. You then present proof that the lien has been removed at closing. The order you have may be sufficient, but its best to nail it down.

Thanks for that info. That actually sounds logical. I just wished the court had informed me of that instead of wasting another day. I'll try to go down this morning. The recorder may be closed today but I'll post an update later.

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Originally Posted by asword

... The Title co. is refusing to remove the lien until my court hearing next month. Is this legal?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by asword

... I'll try to go down this morning. The recorder may be closed today but I'll post an update later.

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The recorder's office can't "remove the lien" from their records. The best they can do is to record the court order quashing the judgment.

What you will have, when all is said and done, is a complete history of the matter:

• judgment lien recorded
• judgment lien quashed

From that history, the title policy will reflect that this lien is not currently in effect.

The title company may be concerned that, if they don't show it on the policy, and if the plaintiff eventually gets a judgment against you and makes a claim against the property, they could be liable to the buyer. Whether the exception in the title report is something to be concerned about (I don't think it is.) is up to the buyer's attorney to figure out.