Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Washington

Re: lien on my house is not against the house or me HELP

If I understand you correctly, you are going to have to pay the lien off. First, I'll recite the facts as I understand them, to make sure I have it right. If I am wrong, you may write to me and I am happy to revise this answer for you.

Prior to knowing you, your ex was married. When he divorced his wife, she obtained a judgment against him. Later you and he purchase a home with both your names on title. When his ex-wife finds out about this, she records her judgment as a lien against the home which you and your ex are both on title.

Later, when you and he split, he quit claims his interest in the home to you.

If the above recitation of the facts are correct, then I stand by my response, that you are going to have to pay this amount off when selling the home or refinancing, or if the ex-wife forecloses upon her lien.

Just because your ex quit claimed his interest in the home does not mean that he paid off his share of the liens upon the home. For example, if there is a mortgage which was 50% his responsibility, you still owe that as well. The holds true for the lien his ex recorded against the property.

The one silver cloud here is that if you each owned a 50% share, and her lien is worth more than 50% of the total value of the property, then you may be able to see a declaratory judgment from a court which precludes her from executing on your 50% share. I'm actually going out on a limb with that theory since I have not researched it in detail, but it might work.

So if the lien is for $500,000 and the home is worth $450,000 (in equity) and half was your ex's, then the idea is to limit his ex-wife to no more than $225,000 (or one half the equity) which represent's his share.

If you need further information or wish to have a full paid consultation, please feel free to get in touch with me by phone or e-mail and we can set something up.