How to Avoid a Lien Placed on Your Granbury Home

What is a Property Lien?

 A lien in the case of real estate property is an official notice that is attached to a property title in the public record stating that the current legal property owner owes a sum of money to a creditor. This also communicates that the current homeowner will not be able to sell off the property without consent from the creditor that placed the lien.

To have the lien removed the homeowner will need to pay the money they owe to the creditor. If they do not pay the money they owe the creditor also obtains the right to sell the property in order to receive the money that is owed.

Liens can be both voluntary and involuntary. Most often a lien is voluntary. A voluntary lien is one placed on a home with the owner's knowledge like when the home buyer has used a mortgage loan to secure financing to purchase the property. This gives the mortgage lender the authority to foreclose on the property if the home buyer does not make the scheduled monthly agreed-upon payments. The most common involuntary lien is in the case of the government looking for money for unpaid property taxes.

How is money collected when a lien is placed?

Though creditors are able to request a home be sold to receive the money they are owed it is rarely done in this manner. This is usually only a last resort if a large sum of money is owed and has been owed for a long amount of time. Often creditors will hold off on foreclosing properties as it can be a large headache to take possession of the property. This means that the creditor that took possession is now responsible for payments on the property until someone purchases it.

When a homeowner sells a home in Granbury and anywhere else in the country the mortgage company is the first to be paid and then any other company legally holding a lien claim will be able to collect depending upon the order of their lien. The only exception to this is if the home has a tax lien the IRS has a leading authority

Removing a lien from your Granbury home

Of course, the simplest way to get s lien removed from your property title is to pay the debt owed in full to the lienholder. You can also contact the lienholder and ask for more favorable terms on the lien. If you have paid a lien in full on your Granbury property it is a very wise thing to make sure that the lienholder has contacted the public records office to remove billing from your property.

The biggest reason it is important not to ignore any liens on your home is that you do not want the home foreclosed on. And a second reason is should you wish to sell your Granbury home you will not be able to do so with a lien on the property if one is found during a title search. Some homeowners have run into trouble when it comes time to sell their homes finding out there is a lien they were unware of or even if  they have paid these debts and found out that the debt holder has not removed the lien from the public record.

If you are a homeowner that has paid off a lien you want to make sure the lien has been removed. If you find there is an outstanding lien on the home you will need to pay it before ownership of the home can change hands. If their is an unpaid lien that went unnoticed the new homeowner will now become respinble to pay the lien off. This is why title insurance is helpful in a home purchase. 

For more information on buying or selling a home in Granbury Texas please contact us anytime.