Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York

Re: Lien

The simplest way is to have a title company do a lien search for you. Otherwise, assuming you are in NY State, you would go to the County Clerk's office in the County where the property is located, and ask one of the clerk's to assist you and point you in the right direction.

Generally, you may need the tax identification of the property (usually Section, Block & Lot, but also "Grid no." in some counties). You can look it up at the County Clerk's office if you have the street address.

You are basically searching to see if the owner has any judgments against him/her/it; if any mechanic's liens have been filed against the property; if any tax liens have been filed by IRS, NYS or if the property is in danger of being sold at a tax sale for unpaid real estate taxes. You also need to see if there are any lis pendens filed (a/k/a Notices of Pendency) which means the property is the subject of a lawsuit that could affect title or ownership rights, such as a foreclosure action. Also, you should check to see if there are any mortgages of record that would need to be paid off to obtain clean title.

Generally, it is all computerized and if the clerk is nice, he or she can run a report on the computer for you pretty quickly right there and print it out for you.