Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Talk to the legal staff at the escrow company handling the closing. You should receive title free and clear of prior liens, and the liens should be paid from the proceeds of sale before any $ goes to the seller. I assume your purchase agreement doesn't include any language saying that you agree to take the property subject to these pre-existing liens.and that you have bargained for a grant deed, not a quitclaim.

I agree with Mr. Whipple. If you are using escrow, and have contracted to purchase title free of any liens and encumbrances, then your title insurer and escrow is not going to let you take title without those being paid off. That usually comes out of what you have paid the property, so the seller gets less money.

Unless the previous seller and the person selling to you did this transaction without a professional escrow and title insurance, your situation seems very strange. If the liens attached before the sale, the sale should not have closed without the liens being paid back then. If they attached after the sale, then they should not be valid. In either case, your seller should be talking to his title company from when he bought the property about why those liens are still there, and you have the right to require that they be cleared before or at close of escrow.