Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>A claim of Lien was filed against my home 5/3/07It has been over 10 years here in Florida,and I would like to get it dissmissed and off of my title to my home,so I can sell it.

A claim of Lien was filed against my home 5/3/07It has been over 10 years here in Florida,and I would like to get it dissmissed and off of my title to my home,so I can sell it.

FloridaMechanics Lien

I had contracted with a "For Sale By Owner" company to help me sell my house.ON the agreement,a fee of $3,667.00 for advertising fee,was to be paid if in 18 months I sold the house. The house never sold till this day 12/23/2018.It states the lien will expire on 10/11/2008.Since the lien has expired how can I get it off the public record?

1 reply

Dec 26, 2018

That's a good question. The cheapest and easiest option to have a lien removed is to reach out to the party who filed the lien and have them remove it themselves. Once a lien is expired, that lien is no longer enforceable - and failure of a lien claimant to remove the filed lien could result in the claimant becoming liable for damages. Informing the lien claimant that their lien has expired and is causing an issue with the property can be a good step toward removal - especially when coupled with a demand for the removal of the lien and a threat of legal action if the expired lien is not removed. Of course, an owner can work to have their lien removed without the cooperation of the lien claimant. Filing a Discharge of Lien under § 713.21 of the Florida mechanics lien statute can help the public record to reflect that the filed lien is no longer valid. Note, though, that this will not remove the filed lien so much as it will amend the public record to show that the lien poses no further threat to the property. Upon court order, such a lien could be completely removed from the record - but that can be costly to pursue, might not have a great success rate, and will generally be unnecessary. Typically, a lien will need to be released prior to sale because one of the title companies takes issue with the presence of the lien in the record - but in a situation where a lien has expired over a decade prior to the transaction at hand, such a lien shouldn't pose too much of a problem for anyone examining the title. Ultimately, if further action is necessary to clear the property title - it might be a good idea to reach out to a local title attorney for assistance. Situations like the one described above are pretty commonplace, so it shouldn't be a huge undertaking to secure help in having the lien released.

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