Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

Re: Real Estate Leins

Only if they sue you and win. THEN, if they jump through a couple of additional hoops they may have a judgment lien against any real estate you own. If there are mortgages or other liens recorded before this occurs, they would essentially have to pay those liens in order to "take" your house. It is quite a bit more complicated that this, but that is the basic explanation.

Perhaps you could make some arrangements to pay them back to prevent this?

Re: Real Estate Leins

There are a couple of common ways to put a lien on your house in that situation. One is to have the borrower(s) sign a mortgage (which is a lien) and then record it against your house. But the mortgage has to be signed by the borrowers, which was apparently not done in this situation.

Secondly, they could sue you, win and then record a "memorandum of judgment" in any IL county. The memorandum would be effective against any and all real estate you own in that county. In that case, the memorandum serves as a lien.