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Lien Expiration Date?

A lien I filed against a customer's property is about to expire and I'm being told I have to file a lawsuit or foreclose on it? Am I not able to "renew" the lien? How/what does "foreclose" on the lien mean? Is this mechanics liens only or all liens in Oklahoma?

1 reply

Sep 11, 2018

All mechanics liens (no matter the state in which they were filed) come with expirations dates. Public policy, and accordingly, statutory law, doesn't allow a lien claimant to encumber property forever.

In Oklahoma, an action to enforce a mechanics lien must be initiated within 1 year of the date on which the lien was recorded. However, note that the action to enforce may not be initiated until at least 90 days have passed from the date on which the lien was recorded.

If an enforcement/foreclosure action is not initiated within the applicable time period, the lien becomes unenforceable, and no longer provides security to recover the amount due.

An enforcement/foreclosure action is a lawsuit to enforce the lien through foreclosure on the property - the power behind a mechanics lien is that the property can be sold to satisfy the debt. While that rarely happens, do to practical considerations, that is the supposed outcome of an enforcement suit. The action must be initiated in court in the county in which the property is located. While an individual lien claimant can generally represent himself/herself in court (although it is rarely, if ever, a good idea) a company claimant must hire an attorney to represent it.

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