Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

From your question, I don't know what stage of the transaction you are in, but if you are still in the process of negotiating the terms of the loan, you would identify with the debtor what personal property you want to be secured by your loan. You would then want to file what's called a UCC-1 form with the California Secretary of State. You can go to the Secretary of State website, and click the Business Programs link, for more details.

You don't. IF you sue and get a judgment, then you can record a lien, and also get a writ issued by the court which will allow you to collect from any assets you find.

Both previous answers are technically right, but not very clear. You can put a lein on personal property to secure a loan being made at the time, or after, if the debtor consents. Their consent is required and if they consent then you use the UCC-1 filing Mr. Westbrook mentions. If the debtor does not consent to the lien, then Mr. Nelson is correct, you can't get one. All you can do is sue on the debt, get a judgment, and then follow the process called a writ of execution to have the property seized and sold to satisfy the judgment. In that case you never get a lien, just a sheriff's seizure and sale.

Just to round out the discussion, I'd like to list some common types of lien and their characteristics:

1. A judgment lien, after a successful lawsuit, which gives the prevailing plaintiff several tools for enforcing a money judgment against the judgment debtor, including recording an abstract of judgment that effects a lien on real property owned by the debtor in the county where recorded, and may also be used to create liens on specific personal property.

2. Public agencies such as the IRS and the county tax collector can record and file liens under various laws empowering them to do so.

3. Persons providing labor, material and machinery for works of improvement to real property are entitled, with certain limitations, to record and enforce so-called mechanic's liens on the real property being improved.

4. Voluntary liens can be placed on real estate by mortgages and deeds of trust.

5. Voluntary liens can be placed on personal property as discussed in the previous answers, i.e., by the debtor consenting via a security agreement to make certain personal property collateral for a debt (such as a loan). The secured party then files a UCC-1 with the Sec. of State to "perfect" the security interest. However, as pointed out, there has to be a security agreement in place between the debtor and the secured creditor before a UCC-1 filing can be done with any effect.

6. The law recognizes a purchase-money lien (a so-called vendor's lien) in many cases where real or personal property is sold but the entire purchase price has not been paid. The relationship of purchaser and vendor must exist for such a lien to arise.

7. The Vehicle Code contains special provisions for liens in favor of the seller or provider of financing for motor vehicles which are subject to registration with the DMV.

8. There are several types of statutory liens under the general heading of possessory liens. For example, if you take an appliance or a piece of machinery to a repair shop, the repair shop has a lien for the cost of the repair work as long as it has physical possession of the appliance or machine or whatever, and isn't obliged to give it back to you until you pay.

9. Finally, there are a bunch of miscellaneous statutory liens - most rather specialized - such as a warehouseman's lien, a carrier lien (the railroad doesn't have to deliver your freight until you pay the freight charges) etc.

So, if you look over the list, you'll probably note that there is no way for an average private party to place a lien on someone else's property, without the other party (debtor) either consenting to the lien or losing a lawsuit.