Real Estate and Judgment Lien Defense and Enforcement

Issues

There are some defenses to judgments.  The best Texas Constitution and statutory defense to a judgment lien on your real property is that it is your homestead.

A property may be your homestead even if you do not live there.  An attorney can help assess the facts and the law.

A property may also belong to your wife or another and not properly be subject to a lien for the judgment against you or vice versa.

It may be necessary to get the creditor to sign a Partial Release of Lien to allow you to close on a sale or refinance.   This is often cheaper than paying the judgment.

There is a new 2007 Texas statute that allows homeowners to send a 30 notice letter to lienholders that lifts the lien absent timely objection so it is good to start this procedure early into a sale listing or refinance.

Sometimes a Declaratory Judgment action seeks a court order finding that the property is not subject to the claimed judgment lien due to homestead, ownership discrepancy, or other defense.

Also, this office provides general real estate services to individuals like deeds and releases of lien and can review house or other real estate loan closing papers.

How we can help

We can prepare appropriate real estate documents and file them for you.

We can help negotiate full or partial release of judgment liens on homestead or for other reasons.