Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Re: enforcement and statue of limitations on judgements by creditors

As a general rule, in California once one obtains a judgment, almost any property owned by the judgment debtor can be used to enforce the judgment. For instance, a judgment creditor can place a lien on your real property, and garnish your wages simultaneously. Judgments are good for ten (10) years from the date of entry, and can be renewed for any number of successive terms of ten (10) years; hence, unless the judgment creditors fail to renew their judgments against you (which is not likely), the judgments will stay with you until they are paid. You should also remember that judgments (at least state court judgments in California) continue to accrue interest at the rate of 10% per annum until paid. That means that not only with the judgments likely be around for a very long time, but that the amount of those judgments will increase.

Finally, you may not be able to obtain a "home loan" (I assume you mean a loan secured by some real property you currently own). Most lenders will not lend money secured by real property unless it is free of superior liens. If the amount of your judgments exceeds the amount of equity you have in your property, it is likely no lender will lend you money secured by the property.

Re: enforcement and statue of limitations on judgements by creditors

In order to enforce a judgment against real property, an abstract of the judgment must be filed with the County Recorder where the property is located every ten years. If you have three different properties in three different counties, then an abstract must be filed in each county every ten years in order to perpetuate the judgments. Feel free to contact me with any further inquiries-Martin

Re: enforcement and statue of limitations on judgements by creditors

The judgment lien is agianst you, and attaches to any property that you own. It will last for 10 years, and can then be renewed for another 10.