Lien on home

Started by JoyW • 14 replies • 1397 views

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JoyW (Georgia)
Posts: 1

Posted:

I have a tenant who has not paid in 6 months and owes $20K. He has bought a house and I want to know if I can lien that property. He continues to live in my house without paying. We would have to take him to Superior Court to get him evicted. I do not have the funds to pay a lawyer.

RogerB (Colorado)
Posts: 5,067

Posted:

Joy, I would evict the tenant. I think it would take going to court to get a judgement to garnish all of his assets before you could legally place a lien on his house.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

A bit confused but it sounds like you have a renter problem? It's not really lienable. What you have to do is go to the court house and fill out eviction paperwork. They will give you two notices to send to the tenant. One is notice of evicition. Which is 10 business days to move out. The other is the actual eviction notification. That means the sheriff's office can come in and physically remove them from the property after that notification. The amount of money they owe will be part of the claim you put on them in court.

I had a tenant 5 months behind in dues with an expired lease. I had to file the paperwork at the courthouse to evict them. It's NOT a HOA problem at all. It is YOUR problem. So you had better go down to the Probate judge's office ASAP and file. The amount they owe you may be too large for small claims but you should be able to file at a higher court level. They should help you at the courthouse. May not need a lawyer but I would suggest getting one since it seems you may not know the process.

You have the responsibility to evict so do it. Warning, a tenant can stay almost a year on some property without paying a dime in rent. It's ALL legal. All they have to do is keep responding to your court complaint. However, it looks like your tenant is ready to go so they shouldn't fight you.

Former HOA President

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059

Posted:

Placing a lien on the property will not accomplish what you are looking for. You own the property.

As others have said, you need to go through an eviction process of the tenant and then seek a judgment in court for the rent due. Then you need to enforce the judgment by going back to court and requesting garnishing of wages (if the person has a job) or by seeking the assistance of a collection agency.

Since you don't have the funds, you might want to consult with an attorney and see if there are other methods available to you then going to the courts.

PetunkaM (Florida)
Posts: 1,009

Posted:

' He has bought a house and I want to know if I can lien that property'

I see no rason why you could not. But am not sure if you need an attorney in GA or not.

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By JoyW on 10/04/2011 10:45 AM
I have a tenant who has not paid in 6 months and owes $20K. He has bought a house and I want to know if I can lien that property. He continues to live in my house without paying. We would have to take him to Superior Court to get him evicted. I do not have the funds to pay a lawyer.

Joy:

in order to lien his property you need to have something that has a stake in his property, which at this point I don't think you do. If he is your tenant and has recently bought another home that is a seperate issue. In order to be able to place a lien on his property you would have to get a judgement from a court. Without knowing your state laws not sure how that would all happen. I realize you don't have money to pay a lawyer, but if you continue to let him live there it won't get better.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

You don't need a lawyer to evict your tenant. It's only a few hundred dollars at most. Probably less depending on your court system filing fees. I spent only $140 in court fees to evict my tenant. After the eviction, I was then able to pursue the amount of money they owed me by getting something they owned or garnishing their wages. Just make sure you have their social security number to pursue that. It is free to collect on the debt if it's in the county you file in. There may be a fee if collected elsewhere outside state/county.

You can't lien a house that the person doesn't even own yet. Just don't see the logic in that. You can lien against what they do own. Which may be a car or boat etc...

Go to the courthouse and start filing...

Former HOA President

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Former HOA President

PetunkaM (Florida)
Posts: 1,009

Posted:

You can't lien a house that the person doesn't even own yet. Just don't see the logic in that. You can lien against what they do own. (Melissa)

But Melissa, this is what the OP said:

‘He has bought a house and I want to know if I can lien that property.’

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By PetunkaM on 10/04/2011 3:20 PM
You can't lien a house that the person doesn't even own yet. Just don't see the logic in that. You can lien against what they do own. (Melissa)

But Melissa, this is what the OP said:

‘He has bought a house and I want to know if I can lien that property.’

but you can't lien a home without a court judgement unless you have a stake in the property such as a mechanics lien or an HOA...unless my lawyering skills are bad

PetunkaM (Florida)
Posts: 1,009

Posted:

Brad, Joy asked if she can file a lien on the house and yes, she can. It is a given she has to file a ‘judgment lien’; the judge will rule at the end and we do not know what the outcome will be.. 20K is a lot of money..

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By PetunkaM on 10/04/2011 6:55 PM
Brad, Joy asked if she can file a lien on the house and yes, she can. It is a given she has to file a ‘judgment lien’; the judge will rule at the end and we do not know what the outcome will be.. 20K is a lot of money..

I get that...i took her original post to mean she didn't have the money to go to court and wanted to know if she could file a lien without doing so which she can't

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

They want to file a lien on the house the tenant intends to purchase NOT the home the tenant is in. That contract has nothing to do with them. An exchange of money or contract hasn't even taken place. It's like me putting a lien on your home because the person buying the house owes me money. Does that make sense? No.

What has to happen is an eviction. That eviction paperwork will cover the amount owed. However, since it's more than the small claims court limitations, it will have to be taken to a higher court. The eviction will go through it's proper channels but another case may have to filed in another court level separately.

Proof of what is owed is needed. The original rent agreement will be required. 20K in rent for 6 months is kind of high. Where is all this 20K amount coming from? You can't prove damages yet until the tenant is removed. Then you have to get estimates of repairs, pictures of the damages, and other sources of proof. That amount may then be added to the lawsuit but the intial eviction should contain the amount in regards to actual back rent owed.

I've had to evict a tenant that caused damage to my home. The first steps are to serve them with the proper court notifications. After that happens, then the judgement portion is pursued. A lien is a judgement. It's different than the one from the court judgement. It would be more of a result of non-paying of the court judgement than a separate pursuit.

Former HOA President

PetunkaM (Florida)
Posts: 1,009

Posted:

Brad,

agree, she cannot file a lien against the property without the court judgement. It is a sad situation.

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By MelissaP1 on 10/05/2011 6:58 AM
They want to file a lien on the house the tenant intends to purchase NOT the home the tenant is in. That contract has nothing to do with them. An exchange of money or contract hasn't even taken place. It's like me putting a lien on your home because the person buying the house owes me money. Does that make sense? No.

What has to happen is an eviction. That eviction paperwork will cover the amount owed. However, since it's more than the small claims court limitations, it will have to be taken to a higher court. The eviction will go through it's proper channels but another case may have to filed in another court level separately.

Proof of what is owed is needed. The original rent agreement will be required. 20K in rent for 6 months is kind of high. Where is all this 20K amount coming from? You can't prove damages yet until the tenant is removed. Then you have to get estimates of repairs, pictures of the damages, and other sources of proof. That amount may then be added to the lawsuit but the intial eviction should contain the amount in regards to actual back rent owed.

I've had to evict a tenant that caused damage to my home. The first steps are to serve them with the proper court notifications. After that happens, then the judgement portion is pursued. A lien is a judgement. It's different than the one from the court judgement. It would be more of a result of non-paying of the court judgement than a separate pursuit.

If you go back and reread the OP it states he just bought a home and we all understand it isn't the home he currently lives in. She wanted to know if she can lien the home for the monies owed, the answer is yes and no. No she just can't lien someone's property without a stake in it. But yes, if she goes to court and she gets a judgement against this person then she can lien their property wherever they own it or even pursue wage garnishment. Two issues, eviction and getting the money, both require court proceedings.

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