Comments on: Foreclosure of Your Mechanic’s Lien

By: Kelly M. Davis Esq.

Kelly M. Davis Esq. — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:23:45 +0000

Because of trespassing laws I would not recommend doing so without getting a judgment on your lien granting foreclosure and allowing foreclosure of your “removeable” which would be your fence.

By: Toni C.

Toni C. — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:23:13 +0000

Our company installed a fence for a customer who now refuses to pay and won’t return any of our phone calls. We have filed an affidavit of lien. I wonder if it is legal in the state of Texas to remove the fence for non payment?

By: Kelly M. Davis Esq.

Kelly M. Davis Esq. — Mon, 09 May 2011 15:00:56 +0000

We have to assume first that this is not a residential house that is their homestead. If it is a homestead you are unable to foreclose on your lien. Once you have gone through the foreclosure of the property and sell it at the Sherriff’s sale it is the purchaser of the property takes the property subject to all liens and is essentially responsible for the mortgage on the property. If you are unable to sell it at the sale to a third party and instead buy it yourself than you the mortgage is attached to the property. In my experience you probably have 1-2 months to locate a legitimate buyer and pay off the mortgage or to try and work out a deal with the mortgage company to assume the mortgage in your own name. Otherwise, the mortgage company will eventually foreclose themselves and take the property back.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:48:46 +0000

I have a question? I want to foreclose on my materialman’s lien, but there is a 1st mortgage lien on the property. What will happen if I choose to foreclose my lien, and have the property auction at a sheriff sale?

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:34:44 +0000

Sorry the field had “kelly” as the name but it was from me, Julie. Kelly, Please let me know what you think about the situation if the deed of trust on the mechanics lien makes a difference on statue of limitations.

By: Kelly M. Davis Esq.

Kelly M. Davis Esq. — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:14:26 +0000

Kimberly,
In Texas all liens have various levels of priority. The Bank usually gets what is called a priority status, which means they trump all other liens (except IRS), so when they foreclose on a property technically the other liens get cancelled out. Now in practice I have seen that Title Companies do sometimes require old Mechanics Liens to be paid off even after that scenario. If the home is already up for foreclosure in Texas it would be pretty hard to file suit to foreclose on a Mechanics lien due to the time limitations (i.e. the bank can usually foreclose within 60 days and it might take you a year to get an Order from a Court allowing you to foreclose). The process is a full lawsuit that takes time and money to be able to proceed through all the legal steps.

You would be best served to find an Attorney in your area that does construction law to find out how Georgia law handles Mechanics Liens and what security is provided to a lien claimant when a bank forecloses out their lien.

By: Kelly M. Davis Esq.

Kelly M. Davis Esq. — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:14:05 +0000

Julie,
The person that put the lien on the property had up to 2 years (this time varies by type of property but 2 yrs is the longest time to be on the safe side) to file for forclosure on the debt owed. Since it dates back to 1996 it would seem that you are okay. If I understand you correctly, you are saying that at some point the company that had the lien on the property foreclosed or took possession of the property by way of their lien. This should have essentially extinguished the lien but, for whatever reason, the lien was never removed and continues to cloud the title. While it is true that the statute of limitations ran long ago, you still have to deal with the issue that the lien continues to cloud title. The easiest way to deal with this would be to send a demand to the lien claimant demanding that they remove the lien or â€œcloud of titleâ€ from the property within a fixed number of days otherwise they would be subjecting themselves to a suit for the removal of an invalid lien and a trespass to try title action which could subject them to substantial damages.

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:44:30 +0000

I have a question… I purchased property with an old broken down house (needs to be torn down) in 2007 and just got it paid off. (This property use to be in our family years ago). Anyways, we were getting the title put into our name and found out that there is an old Mechanic’s Lien from 1996 on it. Apparently it got assumed by another company in 2004. This property was taken back by the original owner earlier this year with a Warrany Deed in leau of foreclosure, and it was sold to us. The people that had it that she took it back from are the ones that got siding or something done to the house that had the mechanic’s lein on it.

My question is: I am afraid to put the property in my name with the lien on it but I have paid all this money for the family property. I also now own the adjoining property. Is there a statue of limitations that someone has to file “foreclosure on a mechanics lien” in Texas? If they put the orginial lien in 1996 and it was assumed in 2004 can they still come in and foreclose or is there a way to fight this lein because it is not my debt?

Thanks and God Bless

By: Kimberly Benford

Kimberly Benford — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:32:03 +0000

I have a mechanic lien on a property in GA. It looks as if the home is going into foreclosure. How would I be able to get the money owed to my company if the bank foreclose. I can foreclose on the home to secure my lien position.

By: Didn't foreclose on your Mechanic's Lien? What should you do now?

Didn't foreclose on your Mechanic's Lien? What should you do now? — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:49:35 +0000

[...] time we talked about the steps one takes toÂ foreclosure on their Mechanic’s Lien and the foreclosure deadlines.Â This month I wanted talk about what happens if you fail to [...]