Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia

If a lien is never satisfied, when does it come off the court's records?


Asked on 1/21/16, 4:28 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

This makes no sense. First, what do you have? Are you talking about something like a mechanic's lien or are you talking about a judgment? I assume the latter. Once a judgment is entered and a writ of execution (called a fieri facias or FiFa) the judgment is indexed as a lien against real property.

Judgments last forever. However, for enforcement purposes against real property, they can be enforced for 7 years. Once the liens go dormant, they can still be revived within 3 years, so I think its more accurate to say that a judgment lien is good for 7 to 10 years.

If the lien has not been revived within 10 years, by that time it should have dropped off the credit report and should no longer be enforcible against real property. But that doesn't mean it comes off the court records. Judgments do not come off. They have to be marked as satisfied or vacated/opened/set aside (assuming grounds for that exist).

If this is some other kind of lien - like a homeowner's association lien or mechanic's lien, those are different. Usually, these have to be followed up with some kind of legal action - lawsuit, foreclosure on the lien. The lien then merges into a judgment. If s\omething like a mechanic's lien is filed and no action is brought, then the lien is not enforceable, but this is kind of outside my bailiwick and I would have to review the Georgia Mechanics' lien laws - and I am not inclined to do that. So if you have something like that then I would talk to a practicing Georgia attorney about removal.

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Answered on 1/22/16, 3:49 pm


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