I filed a mechanical lien, and the house has sold. I thought a house cannot be sold with a lien on it.
If the owner has the requesite collateral, the owner can execute a bond on the lien which removes that lien from the property. I suspect, though I have no way of being sure, that this is what happned here. You still have all of your claims against the owner, and now a surety is involved which guaranteesthat, if you take the owner to court and win, the judgment will be paid. So you are basically in the same situation you were before, except that the case no longer involves the home in question.
If you are looking to recover against this owner and would like to speak to a lawyer about that process, please feel free to contact me directly.
Very best,
Ben House
281-762-1377
ben@houseperron.com
A lien attaches to the house, not the owner. The house can be sold with the lien attached. If it is a statutory lien and was properly developed, including appropriate notices and the filing of the affidavit with the county, the buyer gets a piece of property encumbered by the lien and therefore subject to foreclosure if the debt is not paid. If it was a constitutional lie, if an affidavit was properly filed, the lien is valid. If the affidavit was not filed, the lien is extinguished by the sale. Of course, the possibility exists that the owner or even the buyer bonded out the lien so that the fidelity company assumes the debt behind the lien.
Hello!
If you filed the lien in a timely fashion, the lien should have been picked up by the title company. If you did file timely and properly and the lien was not picked up by the title company, you have to sue to enforce the lien and you must sue the former owner of the property and the current owners of the property. The current owners of the property will be forced to contact an attorney who will go inform the title company it is their job to defend the suit.
Title companies write insurance policies for clear title. If they missed your lien, they will be forced to pay you the money that you are owed on your lien. Be aware, you will have the previous owner fighting you at the same time. I certainly hope you got your lien right.
If you need help, please reach out to us as we do this kind of litigation.
E. Aaron Cartwright III
214-789-1354
Aaron@EACLawyer.com